Warrior

This stylized figure, with thin, elongated body and limbs, represents a warrior in an attacking stance. The warrior strides forward with his left leg; his right arm is held up and once grasped a spear in the small hole in his fist. His left arm, extended away from his body and broken at the wrist, once carried a shield. There is no indication of musculature on either arm. The warrior’s angular face is highly stylized, with wide eyes, a prominent, triangular nose, and a small mouth. His helmet leaves his face entirely exposed, and the cheek pieces are lifted up on either side of his head. The high, broad crest of the helmet is elaborately incised with patterns of dots, triangles, and squares; the tail of the crest hangs down the warrior’s back, extending down to his waist. His cuirass is decorated on the front and back with incised tabs, circles, spirals, chevrons, and dots. Two large triangular shoulder guards are indicated, and the cuirass below the waist consists of three rows of rectangular tabs. The cuirass is very short, leaving the genitalia and buttocks exposed. Plain greaves cover the legs from the knees down. It is not clear from the extant right foot whether the warrior was depicted wearing footwear. Various types of statuettes depicting a warrior, perhaps Mars or the dedicant, are found in northern Italy during the Archaic period (1). Statuettes thought to be by the same artisan as the Harvard piece are in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2). NOTES: 1. See G. Colonna, Bronzi votivi umbro-sabellici a figura umana 1: Periodo “arcaico” (Florence, 1970) 76-83, nos. 174-92, pls. 49-60; and 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. A 19. 2. Providence, inv. no. 34.011; and Boston, inv. no. 52.186. For a discussion of this artisan and the 17 suggested examples of his work, along with his workshop, see Q. Maule, “Etrusco-Italian Bronzes: The Todi Workshop,” Studi etruschi 58 (1992): 75-88. The closest comparable piece to the Harvard statuette is in the Villa Giulia, Rome, inv. no. 6724. Lisa M. Anderson