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Lot Essay
This exceptional bronze figure of a youth possibly served either as a thymiaterion or candelabrum finial, or was positioned on the lid of a cinerary urn (for a related examples of each type see nos. 4.52a, 5.16 and 5.18 in R.D. de Puma, Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art). The incredible attention to the details of the hair, Ionianizing in style, indicates the strong East Greek influence which reached Etruria during this period, perhaps via the Phocaean colony of Massalia, modern Marseilles.
The bird held in the youth's right hand is a cock, while it is less clear what kind is held in his left, perhaps a hen or a dove. The Etruscans offered cocks as votive gifts, as evinced by the bronze example found at Fonte Veneziana near Arezzo in 1869, now in Florence (M. Cristofani, I bronzi degli Etruschi, Novara, 1985, fig. 3.25). Etruscan bronze figures proffering a votive bird are extremely rare. For a later example of a boy holding a goose see no. 138 in S. Haynes, Etruscan Bronzes.
The American sculptor Milton Elton Hebald, who collected this piece in the middle of the last century, specialized in large-scale bronzes, and twenty-three of his works are displayed for the public in New York City, including the statues of Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest in Central Park in front of the Delacorte Theater.
The bird held in the youth's right hand is a cock, while it is less clear what kind is held in his left, perhaps a hen or a dove. The Etruscans offered cocks as votive gifts, as evinced by the bronze example found at Fonte Veneziana near Arezzo in 1869, now in Florence (M. Cristofani, I bronzi degli Etruschi, Novara, 1985, fig. 3.25). Etruscan bronze figures proffering a votive bird are extremely rare. For a later example of a boy holding a goose see no. 138 in S. Haynes, Etruscan Bronzes.
The American sculptor Milton Elton Hebald, who collected this piece in the middle of the last century, specialized in large-scale bronzes, and twenty-three of his works are displayed for the public in New York City, including the statues of Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest in Central Park in front of the Delacorte Theater.