CIRCA 450 B.C.

Details

AN ETRUSCAN BRONZE WARRIOR
CIRCA 450 B.C.
6 7⁄8 in. (17.5 cm.) high

Provenance

with Wladimir Rosenbaum (1894-1984), Ascona.
with Galleria Serodine, Ascona.
Private Collection, Pforzheim, Germany and Calodyne, Mauritius, acquired from the above, by 1995.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, acquired from the above, 2008 (Art of the Ancient World, vol. XXI, 2010, no. 41).
Christian Levett, London, acquired from the above on behalf of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art, 2010.

Literature

M. Junkelmann, "Roman Militaria," in M. Merrony, ed., Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Mougins, 2011, p. 237, fig. 3.

Exhibited

Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, 2011-2023 (Inv. no. MMoCA623).

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

This elongated figure is solid cast and strides forward with his left leg advanced. In his fisted raised right hand he holds a spear and likely once wielded a shield in the other. He wears a high-crested helmet with raised cheek-pieces, a pair of greaves, a cuirass with long shoulder flaps and a raised ridge along its lower edge, with pteryges and his tunic extending below. The panoply of protective armour is embellished with cold-worked incised and stippled details.

Similar elongated youthful warriors have been found in votive deposits at various sites in Umbria, including Todi, Foligno, Calvi and Ancarano. It is unclear if they represent the war god Laran or mortal warriors. For a related example from Ancarano, now in the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, see no. 24 in D.G. Mitten, Classical Bronzes.

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