Baby Boy with Egyptian Goose
This statue is a variation on a theme which was popular in the Roman imperial period: that of boy and goose. The boy’s baby fat and his demonstrative gesture make him Hellenistic in style. Is he playing, as the innocence of his youth would imply, or is he hurting the animal? Is he a mortal child or a variant on baby Hercules strangling the snakes?
Rome, Vatican, Galleria dei Candelabri 214
Purchased in 1884 from Malpieri of Rome
Gardner: Journal of Hellenic Studies VI (1885), 6, no.25 (type IV)
Clarac: Musée de Sculpture (1841-53), 877, 2229
Richmond: Journal of Hellenic Studies XXVIII (1908), 19, pl. XIV (similar replica in Cook collection)
Jahreshefte der Öserreichischen Archäologischen Instituts in Wien VI (1903), 227 & pl. VIII (replica in Vienna from Ephesus)
cf. Pliny: Natural History XXXIV.84
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 110, no.577
Reporter: 19 June 1885, 894, no.519
Found near Lake Nemi