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Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 6
Lesson 7: Hellenistic- Statue of a Victorious Youth, Getty conversations
- Barberini Faun
- Dying Gaul and Ludovisi Gaul
- The Dying Gaul, reconsidered
- Dying Gaul
- Bronze statue of Eros sleeping
- Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace
- Nike (Winged Victory) of Samothrace
- Nike of Samothrace
- Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon
- The Pergamon Altar
- Altar at Pergamon
- Apollonius, Seated Boxer
- Seated Boxer
- The Spinario (boy pulling a thorn from his foot)
- Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii
- Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii
- Alexander Mosaic
- Laocoön and his sons
- Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, Laocoön and his Sons
- Laocoön
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The Spinario (boy pulling a thorn from his foot)
Spinario (Boy with Thorn), c. 1st century B.C.E., bronze, 73 cm high (Capitoline Museums, Rome), a conversation with Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris, Smarthistory, and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Does it tell a story? (i feel bad for the boy)(1 vote)
- This is a story. It has much to teach us. It need not have ever happened, but if the picture causes you to feel something, then the art has succeeded.(3 votes)
Video transcript
(upbeat music) - [Steven] We're in the Capitoline Museums looking at a famous sculpture
of a boy pulling a thorn out of his foot, called the Spinario. - [Beth] It's a little ironic that one of the most famous
sculptures in this museum is a very simple, everyday moment. Here we are in the Capitoline Museum on the Capitoline Hill. It couldn't be a more formal space, and yet this lovely little sculpture of a boy pulling a thorn out of his foot. - [Steven] It's this moment caught in time and it's so tactile. It's an experience that
I think we all remember, something caught in our foot. So we have this nude figure who's just reaching down
and intently focusing. - [Beth] And you feel that concentration in the bend of his neck,
in the curve of his back. - [Steven] And the way he pulls
his left leg over his right. We're not sure about the
origin of the sculpture. It may be Hellenistic Greek. It may be a later Roman copy, but we know that it was
copied over and over again, especially in the Renaissance and after. - [Beth] It's used as a
model for Brunelleschi in the competition panel
for the baptistry doors. This was much beloved
by Renaissance artists, also by Baroque artists
who were interested in that idea of capturing
a moment in time. - [Steven] His attention
focuses our attention. I move around the figure to
look at the bottom of his foot, to see his fingers
wrapping around the thorn. And there's a real delicacy
in the handling of his face. And especially of the
hair that frames his face. - [Beth] For the simplicity of the action, the pose is incredibly complex, the turning over of the foot to make the bottom of
his foot face upward. - [Steven] And I love the
delicacy of the unharmed foot. - [Beth] Well, he can't go on. He can't get up and walk
until he's removed this thorn from his foot. He's stopped dead in his tracks. - [Steven] This is such a perfect example of the late Greek style
that we call the Hellenistic that has gone beyond the heroic and beyond representations
of gods and goddesses, and is interested in the
everyday, in the familiar, in the intimate. - [Beth] And we're not
used to seeing bronzes, most of the sculptures that we see as we walk around this
museum or any museum showing Ancient Greek
and Roman art is going to be filled with marbles,
mostly later Roman copies. So it's really special to have this. (upbeat music)