Warrior

The highly stylized warrior is nude except for a helmet, which is indicated by the piriform crest on top of the statuette (1). The head and neck are undifferentiated, consisting of a simple bar connecting to the torso. Three small circles on the torso indicate nipples and navel, while the genitalia are modeled. The left arm is short (1.7 cm long) and tapers to a point (5mm down to 1 mm); the right arm is longer (2.7 cm) and broader (5 mm), with no taper, and ends in a hole used for attaching a weapon, likely a spear. The torso is flat and branches into two legs, which end with feet protruding in the front and tangs for insertion into a mount below them. When the warrior originally came to the Harvard Art Museums, it had another element attached to the hole in the hand. This element proved to be the head of a similar figurine, although at a much smaller scale. The two have since been separated (see 1998.15.14.1). Statues and statuettes of warriors in an attacking stance are quite common and range from highly developed—for instance Harvard’s 1977.216.2310—to very abstract, such as the present example (2). NOTES: 1. Compare A.-M. Adam, Bronzes étrusques et italiques (Paris, 1984) 175, no. 260; A. Caravale, Museo Claudio Faina di Orvieto: Bronzetti votivi (Milan, 2003) 66-68, nos. 46-50; G. Colonna, Bronzi votivi umbro-sabellici a figura umana 1: Periodo “arcaico” (Florence, 1970) 100-103, no. 285, pl. 72; and M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1976) 175-76, nos. 206-207. 2. Compare M. Bolla and G. P. Tabone, Bronzistica figurata preromana e romana del Civico Museo Archeologico “Giovio” di Como (Como, 1996) 44-55, nos. A19-32, esp. A19. Lisa M. Anderson