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Lot Essay
The serene expression and details of the face of this youth find a close parallel in a standing athlete now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 12, pp. 95-97 in Kozloff and Mitten, The Gods Delight, the Human Figure in Classical Bronze. Note for example the similar rendering of the irises and lips.
For a related bronze in terms of the dating, scale and function, see the maenad now in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, no. 21, pp. 124-125 in Buitron-Oliver, The Greek Miracle. Note the similar contours at the lower back edge suggesting its position on a krater. The maenad is thought to be the pendant figure to a bronze lyre player now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (no. 34 in Gorbunova, Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Hermitage).
Assuming that the present figure served a similar function and was once paired with another figure, he can perhaps be identified as one of the Dioskouroi. The pilos helmet and the youthful visage are consistent with this attribution.
For a related bronze in terms of the dating, scale and function, see the maenad now in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, no. 21, pp. 124-125 in Buitron-Oliver, The Greek Miracle. Note the similar contours at the lower back edge suggesting its position on a krater. The maenad is thought to be the pendant figure to a bronze lyre player now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (no. 34 in Gorbunova, Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Hermitage).
Assuming that the present figure served a similar function and was once paired with another figure, he can perhaps be identified as one of the Dioskouroi. The pilos helmet and the youthful visage are consistent with this attribution.