Greek, 5th century BCE; bronze; 21.5 × 5.2 × 7.2 cm (8 7/16 × 2 1/16 × 2 13/16 in.). BZ.1936.61
This statuette may depict Hephaistos, the Greek god of fire, wielding an axe (now missing). By observing the motion of real bodies, Greek artists came to the realization that the movement of any one body part affects all of the others. Here, the figure’s outstretched arms are skillfully counterbalanced by his curving spine, tilting shoulders, and arched back.
Provenance
- Said to be from Attica. Collection of Edward Perry Warren (1860–1928), Surrey, England; still in his estate in 1930 (noted as “Nachlass Edward Perry Warren” in Langlotz, “Epimetheus,” Die Antike 6 [1930]: 1–14); Jacob Hirsch, New York (1874–1955); purchased from Hirsch by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, DC, November 1936; transferred to Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC, November 1940.
Selected Bibliography
- G. M. A. Richter, Catalogue of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection (Cambridge, MA, 1956), 25–26, no. 14, plate 9.
- A. P. Kozloff, D. G. Mitten, and S. Fabing, The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze (Cleveland, OH, and Bloomington, IN, 1988), 90–94, no. 11.
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Statuette of Hephaistos
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