Warrior figure with sword, Bronzeage, ca. 300 BC - 200 AD · Indonesia, Eastern Java, purportedly Lumajang area · ID: 3052697
Kurt Sandmair (1932-2013), Munich, Germany (acquired in the early 1980s in Amsterdam)
Description
bronze, base
Although images of humans and animals are occasionally found on reliefs of early bronze drums and ritual vessels, three-dimensional sculptures with such subjects are exceedingly rare in the art of the Bronze Age !
This striking standing figure possibly depicts a warrior. It is very animated with an expressive face, bulging eyes and an aggressive open mouth. In his left arm he holds an unfortunately unrecognizable possibly fragmentary roundish object – a severed head? His proper right hand holds, at hip level, the handle of a sword.
As most of the very few known Bronze Age human sculptures do not yet follow a developed iconography, this example is unique!
Notices
This object is subject to the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Protection Act. Export documents are required for export (subjected to a fee).