The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Statuette of a Young Spearman

late 500s BCE

Etruscan, Archaic Period

Bronze
height: 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2022.43
Location: 102D Pre-Roman

Did You Know?

This figure probably once held a spear or javelin in his raised, pierced right hand.

Description

This small bronze statuette depicts a male figure in the act of throwing. Solid cast, he strides forward with his left foot while holding his left arm to the front and raising his right arm beside his head. The pierced right hand once held a separately made projectile, either an athlete’s javelin or a warrior’s spear (perhaps with a shield held on the left). The nude figure, with its well-defined musculature and finely modeled face and hair, exhibits a developed understanding of the human form.
  • This statuette was originally solid-cast in two separate parts: the body and the head. X-ray imaging shows a projection that extends above the figure’s neck into the head, as a point of attachment. Two hairline fractures appear in the ankles and may be related to the drilling and insertion of modern pins used to mount the figure. Finally, the figure’s left arm is unusually short, with jagged ends. This hand most likely held a shield, now missing. Visual examination and conservation imaging have helped clarify that the arm had broken, and the break edge was filed down to create a shorter forearm and hand that appear less lifelike than the rest of the figure. While restorations are not unusual for an ancient object, understanding the history of alterations to the object provides a clearer picture of how the object has changed over time. Unfortunately, we cannot determine precisely when the reworking of the hand occurred, whether in antiquity or after its modern discovery.
  • -1925
    Mr. Charles Seltman, sold to Captain Edward George Spencer-Churchill
    1925-
    Captain Edward George Spencer-Churchill (1876 -1964)
    21 June 1965
    (Sale: Christie’s London, 21 June 1965 (Northwick Park Collection), lot 459)
    1965-
    William H. Schab (lived 1887-1975)
    Ian Woodner (1903-1990), New York, NY
    13 June 1996
    (Sale: Sotheby’s New York 13 June 1996, lot 52)
    1996-
    William B. Dietrich (1942-2010), Villanova, PA
    12 December 2013
    (Sale: Sotheby’s New York 12 December 2013, lot 40)
    2013-2022
    Phoenix Ancient Art S. A.
    2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Christie, Manson & Woods. Antiquities from the Northwick Park Collection. 1965. Lot 459
    Sotheby's (Firm). Antiquities and Islamic Art. 1996. Lot 52
    Sotheby's (Firm). Egyptian, Classical & Western Asiatic Antiquities. 2013. Lot 40 www.sothebys.com
  • {{cite web|title=Statuette of a Young Spearman|url=false|author=|year=late 500s BCE|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.43