The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

An up close photograph of solely the fragmented torso of a marble statue. Light from the right highlights the musculature and dark grooves of the fragments cutting across the upper and lower torso. Tiny, dark scratches cover the marble and chunks from the left pec and upper abs have broken away, leaving rough stone.

Untitled (Marble Statue of a Member of the Imperial Family, Metropolitan Museum of Art)

2015

Larry Merrill

(American, b. 1948)
America
inkjet print
Image: 33 x 48.3 cm (13 x 19 in.); Paper: 43.2 x 55.9 cm (17 x 22 in.)
Gift of the Artist 2022.32
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This close-up view of a torso from the turn of the first century AD reads as a human form yet also suggests a modern, abstract planar sculpture.

Description

Seeing the dramatic play of highlights and shadows on this marble torso on view in the galleries of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is hard to believe that Larry Merrill made this image with whatever illumination he found in the gallery. Merrill makes these pictures as a regular visitor to the museum, so does not have the opportunity to set up extra lights, nor is he allowed to use flash.
  • 2016–22
    Larry Merrill (the artist) [1948-], given to The Cleveland Museum of Art
    March 7, 2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled (Marble Statue of a Member of the Imperial Family, Metropolitan Museum of Art)|url=false|author=Larry Merrill|year=2015|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.32