Marble Old Fisherman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2007

Title: Marble statue of an old fisherman

Period: Imperial

Date: 1st or 2nd century CE

Culture: Roman

Medium: Marble

Dimensions: H. 42 in. (106.7 cm)

Classification: Stone Sculpture

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1919

Accession Number: 19.192.15

Copy of a Greek statue of the late 3rd century B.C.

The effects of hard work and age are powerfully rendered in this representation. A more complete replica in Rome preserves the head and a basket of fish on the left arm, indicating that the stooped figure must be a fisherman. Since his voluminous cloak seems ill-suited to work, he is probably headed for a festival, as is the statue of an aged woman carrying chickens and a basket of fruit, which stands nearby. During the Hellenistic period, genre statues of this type were dedicated in temples and sanctuaries, sometimes in landscape settings. Wealthy Romans often placed their copies in gardens and parks.
Displayed between the nearby columns is a small head of an elderly man wearing a peasant’s cap that comes from a similar statue and may also represent a fisherman.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/250748