Some Bronzes recently acquired for the Ashmolean Museum

Abstract

In 1897 Professor Furtwängler, whose loss we feel more and more, published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Munich certain early bronzes from various parts of Greece and Italy, and belonging to various Museums. He then observed how great is the importance of these bronze statuettes of good Greek work, seeing that larger bronze statues have almost wholly disappeared, and the masterpieces of the great bronze-casters survive only in marble copies of the Roman age. With this suggestive observation I fully concur.The excavations of recent years have brought to light a considerable number of important Greek bronze statuettes, which can be in some measure dated by the circumstances of finding, as well as by style. Many of these are in the National Museum at Athens, published by De Ridder. A certain number, as is natural in the case of such small and valuable objects, have been exported from Greece and Italy and purchased by great Museums or by private collectors. Unfortunately in regard to many of these the place and circumstances of finding must always be doubtful, as it is not in the interest of the seller that the truth should be known.