Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 460–450 B.C.

The subject of this statue has not been identified with certainty. The warrior held a shield on his left arm and probably a spear in his right hand, and he stands with his feet carefully placed on a sloping surface. The figure must have some association with the sea because a planklike form surrounded by waves is carved on the plinth of a second copy in the British Museum, London. It has been suggested that he is the Greek hero Protesilaos, who ignored an oracle's warning that the first Greek to step on Trojan soil would be the first to die in battle. The statue might represent him descending from the ship, ready to meet his fate. Following the discovery of a wound carved in the right armpit, the figure was reinterpreted as a dying warrior falling backward and identified as a famous statue by the sculptor Kresilas. Many other identifications have been suggested to explain the unusual stance and the unique iconography of this statue and of the copy in London, but none has been generally accepted.

Said to be from near Rome (Richter 1954, p. 23).

Early 1920s, head and body excavated from near Rome; 1924-1925, acquired by Ugo Jandolo from his uncle, Alessandro Jandolo; acquired April 20, 1925, purchased from Ugo Jandolo, Rome.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1929. "A Statue of Protesilaos." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 24(1): pp. 26-29, figs. 1-3.

Richter, G. M. A. 1929. "A Statue of Protesilaos in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Studies 1: 187-200, figs. 1-7, 15-18.

Richter, G. M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp. 22-23, no. 27, pls. XXV, XXVI.

Frel, Jiri. 1970. "The Volneratus Deficiens by Cresilas." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29(4): pp.170-77, figs. 1, 6-7, 9, 11, 13.

Bol, P. C. 1972. Die Skulpturen des Schiffsfundes von Antikythera. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, pp. 83-84.

Robertson, M. 1975. A History of Greek Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 343ff., 677, n. 121, pl. 112, c.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 44, pp. 62-63.

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1994. Vol. 7, "Palamedes," p. 146, no. 6, and "Protesilaos," p. 556, no. 14a, pl. 431. Zürich: Artemis.

Bol, R. 1998. Amazones Volneratae: Untersuchungen ze den Ephesischen Amazonenstauen. Mainz: P. von Zabern, p. 119, n. 679.

Hollinshead, M. B. 2002. "Extending the Reach of Marble: Struts in Greek and Roman Sculpture." In The Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity, edited by E. K. Gazda. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 146-48, n. 89, fig. 6.20.

Coscia, Joseph, Jr. and Elizabeth J. Milleker. 2003. Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Photographic Essay. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 97, pls. 14-16.

Bol, P. C. 2004. "Rundplastik." In P. C. Bol et al., Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst. Mainz: P. von Zabern, vol. 2, pp. 17-18, fig. 22, a, b.

Kreikenbom, D. 2004. "Der Reiche Stil." In P. C. Bol et al., Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst. Mainz: P. von Zabern, vol. 2, p. 241, fig. 22, a, b.

Picón, C. A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 432-33, no. 140, ill. pp. 126-27.