Closeup of a bronze ‘Camillus’ statue
Cast bronze statue with silver eyeballs, identified as a Camillus. In the Roman world, a Camillus was the young man that assisted a priest during the sacrifices to the gods.
The figure wears a short, sleeved tunic, clasped at the waist with a belt tied in a bow and decorated with two vertical copper bands that reproduce the purple bands (clavi) worn by offerants. He is wearing sandals.
The figure harmoniously combines iconographic elements and shape arrangements from different periods of Greek art, blending them with a refined and elegant taste.
The head shows female features and its hair, forehead and eyebrows can be compared with Classical Greek models of female deities; however, the body proportions, the arrangement of the composition and the way the robe is adjusted to the body are typically male.
The distribution of the weight of the body closely repeats Polykleitos’ scheme and resembles the solution adopted for a statue of Hebe – a youth, cupbearer of the gods – made for the Temple of Hera at Argos, of which this Camillus may have taken both the gesture and more generally the iconographic scheme.
The work can be dated to the Claudio-Neronian period (14 BC-68 AD) period on the basis of characteristics in the rendering of the robe and some features of the face and hair.
The statue was among the objects donated to the Roman people by pope Sixtus IV in 1471. Until then, it had been kept in the Lateran together with other ancient bronzes (She-wolf, Boy with Thorn and the remains of a colossal statue of Constantine) and was moved to the Capitoline Hill on this occasion.
The findspot is unknown, but was probably found in Rome.
Musei Capitolini, Rome (Inv. Scu 1184)
Closeup of a bronze ‘Camillus’ statue
Cast bronze statue with silver eyeballs, identified as a Camillus. In the Roman world, a Camillus was the young man that assisted a priest during the sacrifices to the gods.
The figure wears a short, sleeved tunic, clasped at the waist with a belt tied in a bow and decorated with two vertical copper bands that reproduce the purple bands (clavi) worn by offerants. He is wearing sandals.
The figure harmoniously combines iconographic elements and shape arrangements from different periods of Greek art, blending them with a refined and elegant taste.
The head shows female features and its hair, forehead and eyebrows can be compared with Classical Greek models of female deities; however, the body proportions, the arrangement of the composition and the way the robe is adjusted to the body are typically male.
The distribution of the weight of the body closely repeats Polykleitos’ scheme and resembles the solution adopted for a statue of Hebe – a youth, cupbearer of the gods – made for the Temple of Hera at Argos, of which this Camillus may have taken both the gesture and more generally the iconographic scheme.
The work can be dated to the Claudio-Neronian period (14 BC-68 AD) period on the basis of characteristics in the rendering of the robe and some features of the face and hair.
The statue was among the objects donated to the Roman people by pope Sixtus IV in 1471. Until then, it had been kept in the Lateran together with other ancient bronzes (She-wolf, Boy with Thorn and the remains of a colossal statue of Constantine) and was moved to the Capitoline Hill on this occasion.
The findspot is unknown, but was probably found in Rome.
Musei Capitolini, Rome (Inv. Scu 1184)