Male Figure (c. 1760): Art, History and Details

Male Figure (c. 1760) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Ignaz Günther (German, 1725–1775).

The work and its context

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

This sensuously carved figure probably functioned as a term, an architectural element that incorporates a head and torso atop a tapering pillar typically used as a decorative support, for example on either side of a doorway. The sculpture was likely originally gilded, which would have enhanced appreciation of the torso’s beautifully articulated musculature.

Object facts

• Title: Male Figure
• Date: c. 1760
• Creator attribution: Ignaz Günther (German, 1725–1775)
• Culture: Germany, Munich, 18th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: lindenwood
• Dimensions: Overall: 95.3 x 65.4 x 31.8 cm (37 1/2 x 25 3/4 x 12 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1973.101

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Maser, Edward A. "18th Century in Europe and the United States." In Encyclopedia of World Art, vol. XVI, Bernard S. Myers, ed., 211-238. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959.
• "The Year in Review for 1973." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (1974): 31-78.
• Woeckel, Gerhard P. Ignaz Günther: die Handzeichnungen des kurfürstlich bayerischen Hofbildhauers Franz Ignaz Günther (1725-1775). Weissenhorn, Germany: A. Konrad, 1975.

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.