Bronze
H: 5.3 cm
Provenance: no indication
Intermediate Classical, MM III-LM Ia
c. 1600-1500 B.C.
Ex collection:
Adamidi Frasheri Bey
Solid-cast by the lost wax process.
Condition: patina reddish brown with traces of green on sandy surface. Both feet missing. Casting flaw below left shoulder and on right elbow.
Ascribed by Verlinden to the Neo-Palatial Intermediate Classical period.
The figure is perhaps to be considered a very early example of the group, "the Style of Princes". This is shown by the figure's spirit, the quality of the details, shortness of bust, breadth of shoulders, position of the right arm, its elbow held high and separate from the body as well as the quality of the long hair. Particularly noticeable is the taut stance as the figure, with raised right arm, surges forward up to the waist, the small of its back curved in [1], the chin pulled back lending tenseness to the head. A detail shared with the British Museum figurine [2] is the mode of attachment of the hair at the neck, where two wavy strands fall, which on our example end in curls recalling the three intertwined ones on the back of the Berlin lady [3].
It may not be fortuitous that this statuette, and those in the British Museum and Herakleion Museum [4] all represent mature men.
On view: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva: 1968-1969
Exhibited and Published:
Art Antique, cat. no. 74, ill.
Published:
Davaras, C.: Chalkinoi minoikoi latreis tes sylloges Metaxa, AEphem 1977, no. 76, p. 115.
Verlinden, C.: Statuettes, no. 45, p. 193, pl. 23.
Sapouna-Sakellarakis, E.: PBF I, 5, no. 167, pp. 95-96, pl. 12 (dated Palatial period).
1 Characteristics typical for the prime phase or acme (Sapouna-Sakellarakis, E. PBF I, 5, p. 96).
2 1918. 1-1.114: Verlinden, cat. no. 31.
3 Antikenmuseum Misc. 8092: Verlinden, cat. no. 33.
4 Herakleion, Archaeological Museum 1762: Verlinden,
cat. no. 30.
