Sculpture of a young man. Ancient Roman or later, 1st - 2nd century AD. With Italian and Spanish export license. Marble. 80.5 cm height. Condition: Body in good condition, has lost the head and right arm. It presents historical reconstructions from the 16th - 17th century to complete the figure; the drape hanging from the left arm and base of the figure, from below the right knee and from the left ankle, next to the feet. Provenance: - Auction House - Private collection, 1970. - Private collection, Barcelona. With Italian and Spanish export license. Description: Roman sculpture in round marble, smaller than life size, representing a very young boy, halfway between childhood and adolescence. The torso is already wide and the hands and feet are large, but the body is still rounded and soft in volume, especially the belly and the soft fold of the pubic area. The subtle muscular definition of the torso gives the image a certain athletic appearance, in sharp contrast to the plump, still childish physique of the belly and limbs. The contrast is also established at the level of aesthetic approach, between the naturalistic interest in children's anatomy and the idealization of the representation of a divinity. The young man appears standing in an elegant contrapposto position: the right leg supports the weight of the body while the left relaxes, bending and turning slightly to cross itself in front. The right arm would probably originally be raised or extended, while the left arm is bent at the elbow and advanced towards the front, with the hand closed around a cylindrical object now lost. The figure stands on a simple circular pedestal, from which the left foot protrudes slightly in a detail of naturalism and expressiveness that gives life to the sculpture and reinforces the impression of gently rotating movement. A chlamys completely envelops the back of the body and is gathered over the chest and one of the arms, evidencing the sculptor's mastery in the treatment of the folds and undulations of the fabric, which accurately and delicately reflect the movement of the fine fabric. Fastened over the right shoulder by a brooch, the cloak falls forward, covering the upper part of the torso and the left shoulder, where it is gathered again. The folds formed by the chlamys in this frontal area of ​​the figure are worked with exceptional finesse and thoroughness, and acquire a fluid appearance that multiplies the effects of light and shadow in contrast with the uniform and smooth surface of the skin. In the back part of the figure, the folds acquire a greater volume, and form an asymmetrical scheme that reflects the movement of the boy, falling plumb on the right side and describing wide curves on the left, responding to the movement of the arm. In the front view, the very delicate folds of the fabric play an important role in framing the naked body: on the viewer's left side the fabric falls vertically, forming a straight line that is, however, interrupted by the sensual line of the hip; On the opposite side the fabric wraps around the body, closing the space between the body and the arm. The position of the torso and hip, as well as the way in which the chlamys falls on the chest and is collected in the arm, bring this sculpture closer to Meleager of Scopas (fig. 1), a classical Greek model widely reproduced and interpreted in Roman period, although the child's anatomy does not correspond to the iconography of said hero. In the Chiaramonti Gallery in the Vatican, a torso is preserved, also very close in composition and with a more childish model (fig. 2), similar in size to the piece under study. It is a sculpture with an unidentified theme, and in fact this type of child or adolescent male figure, dressed only in a chlamydia and represented with the grace, solemnity and elegance of a supernatural being, can be related to more than one iconography. Although in archaic and classical Greece Eros was shown as an athletic young man, from Hellenism onwards his form as a little boy will become increasingly common, which will in fact be the one adopted in Roman art. This is why Cupid will become the most common children's form within Roman representations of gods and mythological figures, even giving rise to a genre of scenes starring small Cupids or putti, with or without wings depending on the context. Images of Cupid and groups of putti will be a constant in Roman art, especially in the funerary sphere but also in the domestic sphere, where they enjoyed special relevance as decorative figures in gardens and fountains (fig. 3). Since it is not a representation of a small child, as is the case with the Roman Cupid in its most widespread form, perhaps the identification of this sculpture with the image of a young satyr in the style of the Fould Satyr is more likely (fig. 4), a more clearly adolescent figure. The motif is also common in Roman art, and is usually identified thanks to details such as pointed ears or a small tail (fig. 5). Particularly popular was a type based on an original Hellenistic Greek model depicting the young satyr playing the flute (fig. 6), in a composition that inverts the pose of Praxiteles' Reclining Satyr and probably originates from a bronze by Lysippus. lost today. A third possible interpretation would be the identification of this sculpture with the image of Ganymede, whose iconography usually presents him naked, wearing only a chlamys and holding his shepherd's staff (fig. 7). Although Ganymede is more commonly represented as a slender teenager, he sometimes appears somewhat childlike or, at least, not completely adult. Bibliography: - BARTMAN, E. “Eros’ Flame: Images of Sexy Boys in Roman Ideal Sculpture”, in GAZDA, E. (ed.) The Ancient Art of Emulation. Studies in Artistic Originality and tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity. Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, vile. Supplemental I. The University of Michigan Press. 2002. - DIDDLE UZZI, J. Children in the Visual Arts of Imperial Rome. Cambridge University Press. 2005. - FRIEDLAND, E.A.; SOBOCINSKI, M.G.; GAZDA, E.K. (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture. Oxford University Press. 2015. - KLEINER, D.E. Roman sculpture. Yale University Press. 1992. - RAFF, K. A. (ed.). Roman Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. Art Institute of Chicago. 2017. Parallels: Fig. 1 Meleager. Roman version of the s. II AD from the original of Scopas of the s. IV BC Marble, 210 cm high. Pío Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums, inv. 490. Fig. 2 Torso of a young man with a clamid. First century AD Roman copy of a Greek model from the fourth century BC. Marble, 59 cm high. Galleria Chiaramonti, Musei Vaticani, inv. 2130. Fig. 3 Winged Cupid with water pitcher. Roman copy from the mid 1st century AD of a Hellenistic original from the 3rd century BC. Marble, 100 cm high. Baths of Sagalassos, Turkey. Fig. 4 Satyr Fould. Roman Empire, ca. 100-125 A.D. Marble, 132 cm high. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. NIII 1034. Fig. 5 Satyr turning to look at his tail. Roman version of the 1st-2nd century AD from a Greek original of the 3rd century BC. Marble. Museo Nazionale Romano, inv. 499. Fig. 5 Satyr turning to look at his tail. Roman version of the 1st-2nd century AD from a Greek original of the 3rd century BC. Marble. Museo Nazionale Romano, inv. 499. Fig. 6 Satyr playing the flute. Roman copy from the first half of the 2nd century AD of a Greek original from the 4th-3rd century BC. Marble, 135 cm high. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. MR 188. Fig. 7 Ganymede. Roman Empire, ca. 160-170 A.D. Marble, 150 cm high. Museo del Prado, Madrid, inv. E000035. Notes: - The piece includes authenticity certificate. - The piece includes Spanish Export License (Passport for European Union) - If the piece is destined outside the European Union a substitution of the export permit should be requested, can take between 1-2 weeks maximum. - The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki. #CollectorsFair25