Art Institute of Chicago

Torso of a Youth

Roman

Date

1st-2nd century

Medium

Marble

Culture

Roman Empire

Department

Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Greek masterpieces were copied early and often. The statues of the 4th-century B.C. Athenian sculptor Praxiteles were especially influential. His male figures were usually languid, youthful, and sensuous. The standing figures bore the body’s weight on one taut leg. The other, bent at the knee, was relaxed. The side of the body with the lowered hip had a higher shoulder, resulting in a pronounced S curve. The muscular yet supple body and the opposing diagonal lines of the hips and shoulders of this torso indicate that its sculptor followed Praxiteles’s principles. A swath of drapery across its back may have been draped in the front over one or both of the youth’s arms.

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