Bronze Statuette of a Boy in Eastern Dress in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 2007

Bronze statuette of a boy in Eastern dress
Greek, Ptolemaic or Roman, mid-late 1st century BC

Accession # 49.11.3

Parallels for this boy's unusual and and unclassical costume, particularly his trousers and ornate pyramidal hat, can be found in the works from the eastern borders of the Hellenistic world in the kingdoms of Commagene and Armenia, north of Mesopotamia, beginning in the middle of the first century BC. This statuette was found in Egypt together with an identical figure that is now in the collection of the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

The subject's identity has been much debated and remains a mystery. He may represent Attis, a god of vegetation from Phrygia in central Anatolia. It also has been suggested that the existence of two copies of the same statuette may reflect a double geographical reference- that is, if set up together, the twin figures could be identified as the personifications of Armenia Major and Armenia Minor. However, the images are so similar that more likely they represent the same individual. More recently, the statuette has been identified as a portrait of Alexander Helios, son of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII, as prince of Armenia after Mark Antony's conquest in 34 BC. On the other hand, the mannered style, the exotic dress, and moderate scale of this figure likely signal a decorative function for the statuette, possibly as a lamp or incense-burner stand.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.