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Sacrificing youth
Italic, Etruscan
Late Hellenistic
2nd century B.C.
Medium/Technique
Bronze
Dimensions
Height: 19.4 cm (7 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Horace L. Mayer
Accession Number1974.582
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), no. 079.
DescriptionThe young man pours out a libation of wine from the bowl (phiale mesomphalos) in his right hand and holds a box for incense (acerra) in his left. Both the bowl and the box are finely decorated. He stands with the weight on his right leg, the left relaxed with his left food lifted off. His head is turned towards the bowl, but he appears to look beyond it. He wears an ample cloak (toga) around his lower body and over his left shoulder and a wreath of leaves with a flower at the center and near each ear. He has thick, medium-length hair, arranged in rich waves with the central ones raising upwards (anastole). There are tangs under his feet. Green patina with slight encrustation.
ProvenanceAbout 1907, said to have found at Lake Nemi with a group of bronzes and, by 1908, with Spink and Son, Ltd., London [see note 1]. 1913, acquired by Captain E. George Spencer-Churchill (b. 1876 - d. 1964), Northwick Park; June 21-23, 1965, Northwick Park sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, lot 506, sold to Spink and Son, London. By 1966, Horace L. Mayer (b. 1899 - d. 1968), Williamstown, MA [see note 2]; to his widow, Florence Ellen Mayer, Williamstown; 1974, gift of Mrs. Mayer to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 27, 1974)
NOTES: [1] According to information in the Northwick Park auction catalogue (1965). [2] First lent to the MFA in 1966.
NOTES: [1] According to information in the Northwick Park auction catalogue (1965). [2] First lent to the MFA in 1966.