Torso of a Youth
Unknown Artist
c. 150–100 BCE
Medium
marble
Dimensions
h. 103 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Greek and Roman Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1965.23
About this artwork
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 ori...