Lar (1–25 CE): Art, History and Details

Lar (1–25 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This youthful bronze figure wears a short tunic with copper inlaid stripes and open-toed boots with animal-skin liners. The figure’s arms are missing, but based on other surviving examples, they likely held a libation dish and cornucopia. Even without these attributes, the figure can be identified through dress and stance as a type of Lar, or domestic deity, known as the Lar Familiaris (Household Lar), standing in a characteristic "quiet pose." Other types of Lares include the Lares Compitales and Lares Augusti (Lares of crossroads and of Augustus, respectively).

Object facts

• Title: Lar
• Date: 1–25 CE
• Culture: Italy, Rome, Early Imperial period
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze with copper inlays
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.5 cm (5 11/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1987.3

A detail from the museum

This statuette likely stood with other small bronzes in a household shrine called a lararium.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Kozloff, Arielle P., David Gordon Mitten, and Suzannah Fabing. The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze. Cleveland, Ohio: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.