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Friday What Is it? Strange Bronze Sculpture Edition.

bgaidan

bgaidan

Red Skull Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Member Number
2322
Messages
3,195
Loc
NC Triad
This has been sitting outside my shop since I bought the place 3+ years ago. Left by the PO with all the other stuff I bought with the property. I caught my eye the first time I foudn it and I was never able to find anything about it. I've been setting up a booth at the local antique mall to clear out some of my clutter and brought it alone today and showed the owners and a few other random people that were there. Everyone was equally intrigued by it, but none of us could really find any info on it.


It's probably about 7" x 10". Very heavy for its size...probably 25-30 lbs. Given the obvious copper content and weight, I'm assuming it's bronze. Back plate appears to be cast. Can't tell if the figure itself was also cast or if it was brazed or otherwise added on to a flat piece of plate. Some places, it almost looks like it was built up like some form of welding. Detail is way to good and the overall shapes are too intricate to be pattern cast so it would have had to have been some type of lost wax casting or something similar.



Curious anyone's thoughts on the original purpose of it and/or the subject matter. The figure is kind of devil-ish looking in the face and is fighting off two snakes or serpents. We looked through some various ideas of Greek mythology but nothing really matched up.


1719016782734.png


He face:
1719016800796.png


Moar detail
1719016876393.png


Interface between the back plate and the figure:
1719016899942.png



The back shows one void from an apparent casting process
1719016841502.png


Back also has these fine vertical lines:
1719016933110.png


The bottom and side edges are fairly smooth, but the top is pretty rough cut and has remnants of what could be mortar or grout.
1719016993989.png
 
4runner said:
looks like a sand mold casting...
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Unless I don't know shit about sand casting, how would they have done those undercut areas via pattern casting? Also, wouldn't you see lines/flash from the mould halves? And I wouldn't expect as much detail coming from a pattern.

Seems like lost was would be more likely.

Santa said:
No clue, but no makers mark or signature anywhere?
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Nada. And google image search comes up with nothing.
 
At $2.21 a pound who cares what it is. :flipoff2:
 
Perhaps it's a take on this? "Battle Against Serpents"
1719019265113.png



(If you didn't notice the cock and balls, you have now.) :flipoff2:
 
machining on the back was probably cut on a planer, likely ganged up with ten more of them
 
[486] said:
machining on the back was probably cut on a planer, likely ganged up with ten more of them
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Good call. Planers/shapers aren't even on my radar when I see tooling marks. Pretty cool if that's what it is and would help date it.


M92PV4U said:
Did you try to throw it away and see if it comes back?
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Yes. I once threw it away and woke up the next morning and it was in my bed, staring at me. Touching his "serpent".


Captain Call said:
Do you hear a faint drum beat when you look at it or touch it?
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No. But oddly enough, I hear them when I touch myself. :confused:
 
Beast said:
My guess is it's some sort of homemade art project left over from the previous owner. :laughing:
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Highly unlikely. This wouldn't have been his type of thing. It IS the type of thing he would have bought if he had stumbled across it at a flea market or yard sale though.

The fact that it's solid bronze and now the revelation that the back side may have been planed leads me to think it's not a backyard-type project. Could still be some art student thing or something.....but it's a hell of a lot of bronze.


Also, the lack of any type of hanging or display features almost makes me think it was original intended to be cast in to a wall or something...like you'd see in an old cathedral....but not.


Ah Pook said:
Looks like a lost wax casting.
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That's my current opinion as well.


animator said:
Temu version of Athlete Strangling a Python.
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Doesn't sound like my type of porn at all. :flipoff2:
 
I believe what you have there is an older version of this. Probably from the times when Zeus was trolling Poseidon for staying home on a Friday night and blowing off their plans to meet at the bar. Kids these days don’t know how good they have it. In these times you’d have to make a mold with sand, cast some bronze and then have someone lug this to the guy you wanted to trolls door step.


2AE3E31A-70CF-4A5A-943D-C7BA26585049.jpeg


And here I was thinking this meme would never have a practical use
 
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