Statuette of an African

Dateabout 150-50 BCE

Dimensions10 1/8 × 1 1/2 × 1 3/4 in. (25.7 × 3.8 × 4.4 cm)

MediumBronze

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds given by Nancy and Gene Phlegar, Barbara J. Baker, and The Popplestone Family and with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2010.5

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionA solid-cast bronze statuette depicting a nude male youth of African ethnicity standing in contrapposto. The figure supports his weight on the left leg, while the right leg is bent at the knee and turned outward, with the heel raised. The torso is lean with attenuated musculature. The right arm is raised with the elbow bent and the palm open facing the head; the left arm is lowered and positioned behind the back (the left hand is missing). The head is small with impressionistically rendered tight curly hair. The eye sockets are hollow, originally holding inlays of glass or stone which are now lost.

Label TextAfricans appear frequently in the arts of ancient Greece. However, many of these images of Egyptians, Nubians, Ethiopians, Libyans, Imazighen, and other ethnic groups represent them as conquered enemies or as slaves or entertainers. This dignified image must represent a famous man: perhaps a ruler, a general, or a victorious athlete.Published ReferencesChristie's New York, Antiquities, Sale 1531, 8 June 2005, pp. 98-99, lot 118.

Christie's New York, Antiquities, Sale 2232, 11 December 2009, pp. 86-87, lot 125.

Peck, William H., Sandra E. Knudsen and Paula Reich,Egypt in Toledo: The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2011, p. 92-93, repr. (col.) p. 93.

Comparative Referencescf. Frank M. Snowden, Jr., Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1970). cf. Ladislas Bugner, ed., The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol. 1: From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire (Menil Foundation; Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1976), including Frank M. Snowden, Jr., "Iconographical Evidence on the Black Populations in Greco-Roman Antiquity, " pp. 133-245, and Jehan Desanges, "The Iconography of the Black in Ancient North Africa," pp. 246-268. cf. Arielle P. Kozloff and David G. Mitten, eds., The Gods Delight, The Human Figure in Classical Bronze, exhibition catalogue (The Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988).