Seated Youth Wrapped in a Himation

The feet are not well enough preserved to determine whether he wore sandals or was barefoot. Viewed in profile, the youth appears to slouch forward, and his shoulders appear to be slumped or rolled forward. The underside of the statuette is hollow from the waist down. The back of the torso is modeled, but all modeling ends at the level of the seat.

This seated figure first appeared on the art market with a very similar seated statuette of an older male, also wrapped in a himation; H. Cahn suggested that they might have decorated the shoulder of a volute krater (1). Two comparable statuettes of seated men wearing mantles are known from Dodona (2). Other statuettes of seated men in himatia are known, although some are classified as Etruscan or South Italian (3). Although much later and more elaborate than the examples discussed so far, the best intact representation of figures seated on the shoulder of a volute krater is the Derveni krater (4).

NOTES:

1. See Kunstwerke der Antike: Auktion 60, Münzen und Medaillen AG (Basel) Sept. 21, 1982, lots 98-99. The commentary for the two statuettes mentions a third in the National Museum of Lebanon, Beirut, said to be from the same findspot. The Beirut statuette, also bearded, is wrapped in a himation but rests his left elbow on his left knee and raises his hand to touch his face.

2. See S. Karusu, “ΤΕΧΝΟΥΡΓΟΙ ΚΡΑΤΗΡΩΝ: Fragmente bronzener Volutenkratere,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung 94 (1979): 77-91, esp. 83, pls. 20-21.

3. Compare The Morven Collection of Ancient Art, Christie’s (New York) June 8, 2004, lot 420; and Antiquities, Sotheby’s (London) July 17-18, 1985, lot. 199, two statuettes representing a youth that are either the same object (drastically cleaned between sales) or were made from the same mold.

4. See B. Barr-Sharrar, The Derveni Krater Masterpiece of Classical Greek Metalwork (Princeton, 2008).

Lisa M. Anderson