The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Torso of a Youth

c. 150–100 BCE

Greece

marble
Overall: 103 cm (40 9/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1965.23
Location: 102C Greek

Did You Know?

It was common practice in the 1700s and 1800s to attach new heads or limbs to fragmented ancient statues like this one.

Description

The exceptional workmanship suggests that this sculpture was carved by a Greek sculptor. Its incomplete state of preservation makes precise identification difficult, but it was most likely an Apollo or Dionysos, modeled in the soft, somewhat effeminate style of Praxiteles. The museum’s Apollo Sauroktonos is a useful parallel. The two drill holes in the upper chest are ancient and were possibly used to support separate long tresses of hair. The sculpture may well be a copy of a fourth-century original.
  • Earl of Pembroke
    Earl of Pembroke, formed in late 17th and early 18th Centuries
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 23 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 23 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 25 archive.org
    Merrill, Larry, Kathleen Wakefield, and Archie Rand. An Accumulation of Silence. 2021, 29. Reproduced: p. 29.
  • Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Torso of a Youth|url=false|author=|year=c. 150–100 BCE|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.23