The Chatsworth Head is a slightly over-life-size bronze head dating to around 460 BCE which is now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Description

The head was originally part of a complete statue, probably (judging by the shoulder-length curly hair) one of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

, made up of various sections (e.g. head, arms, legs, some of the locks of hair) produced separately by

lost-wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) i ...

then joined into one whole - a leg from the same sculpture is in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

(Br 69). Its eyes probably originally held

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals i ...

inlay Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...

s, which were held in with surviving bronze plates, which curl outwards to form

eyelash An eyelash (also called lash) (Latin: ''Cilia'') is one of the hairs that grows at the edge of the eyelids. It grows in one layer on the edge of the upper and lower eyelids. Eyelashes protect the eye from debris, dust, and small particles and p ...

es. Its lips seem to have been plated with reddish

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

to imitate their natural colour.

Discovery

In 1834, the

managed to purchase the first large bronze statue found in modern times after its discovery in Italy near the Island of Elba. Two years later a complete statue was discovered near

Tamassos Tamassos (Greek: Ταμασσός) or Tamasos (Greek: Τἀμασος) – names Latinized as Tamassus or Tamasus – was a city-kingdom in ancient Cyprus, one of the ten kingdoms of Cyprus. It was situated in the great central plain of the is ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

and was immediately retrieved by locals who dragged it from its position using oxcarts. During its journey the statue fell apart losing legs, arms and its torso.

Provenance

The head was acquired by the

6th Duke of Devonshire William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, (21 May 1790 K. D. Reynolds, ‘Cavendish, William George Spencer, sixth duke of Devonshire (1790–1858)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; ...

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

from H.P. Borrell in 1838.'The Chatsworth Head'
A. J. B. Wace, ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'', Vol. 58, Part 1 (1938), pp. 90-95, accessed August 2010 The other parts of the statue were lost, but it is believed that a leg in the Louvre was originally part of this statue.Greek bronze statuary: from the beginnings through the fifth century B.C.
Carol C. Mattusch, p.3, 1988, accessed August 2010 The 6th Duke of Devonshire and his successors kept it at their residence of Chatsworth House, from which it takes its name. It was loaned to the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

in the mid-1930s, and was acquired from the 11th Duke by the

in 1958. It has the British Museum catalogue reference 1958 0418 1 and is on show there, in Room 15.

Notes

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References

*D.E.L. Haynes, The technique of Greek Bronze (Mainz am Rhein, 1992) *C.C. Mattusch, Greek Bronze statuary (Cornell University Press, 1988) *L. Burn, The British Museum book of G-1, revised edition (London, The British Museum Press, 1999)

External links