{"title":"Torsos \u0026 Busts","description":"\u003cp\u003eTorsos and busts, hand-carved in marble or hand-cast in bronze: Roman torsos after the Belvedere and Gaddi originals, cuirassed and togate torsos, marble heads of Zeus and Medusa, a bust of Tutankhamun and three bronze character heads after Messerschmidt. Each is a newly made piece that follows a historical model; the product page names that model and gives the dimensions and weight.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"bronzen-hoofd-18e-eeuw-1","title":"Bronze Character Head after Messerschmidt (1 of 3)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis bronze character head after Messerschmidt is built around a shout: the mouth hangs wide open and the eyes are squeezed so tightly shut that the lids swell. Creases fan out from the eye corners to the temples, and two hard furrows cut down between the brows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside the mouth the tongue and lower teeth are modelled; the skull is shaven bald, with a faint incised hatching over the crown. Each new bust is lost-wax cast (\u003cem\u003ecire perdue\u003c\/em\u003e) by hand and given a near-black patina that gathers in the hollows of eyes, cheeks and mouth. It rests on a rectangular plinth of dark stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFranz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783) made his \u003cem\u003eCharakterköpfe\u003c\/em\u003e between 1770 and his death: sixty-nine heads, of which forty-nine survive, the originals in alabaster and a tin-lead alloy. The shaven heads, like this one, are thought by some to show the sculptor himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 60 cm high and only 19 cm wide, this bronze bust can take the top of a low bookcase, where the open mouth meets the eye of anyone coming into the room. Of the three heads after Messerschmidt in the collection, it is the one thrown furthest open.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48772902912347,"sku":"KB0014","price":962.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/Kuzco_bronze_sculpture_head_bronze_patina_green_02658ac7-c66f-4b2d-bc9d-ce180c334940.jpg?v=1727092097"},{"product_id":"bronzen-hoofd-18e-eeuw-2","title":"Bronze Character Head after Messerschmidt (2 of 3)","description":"\u003cp\u003eEvery muscle in this bronze character head is under strain: the brows are dragged down into a deep V, the eyes narrowed to slits and the lips pressed into one tight line. The cheeks bunch into thick mounds, and the chin stands out as a hard knob below the mouth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom 1770 until his death, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783) worked on this series. It ran to sixty-nine heads, of which forty-nine survive; he made them in alabaster and in a tin-lead alloy, called them simply \u003cem\u003eKopfstücke\u003c\/em\u003e, and left the descriptive titles to others after his death.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBelow the face the neck is long, its tendons standing out like cords above clearly modelled collarbones. The front of the skull is bald, while a fringe of cropped hair is chased in fine hatching round the back and sides. Each new bust is cast from its own wax and patinated by hand, near-black with silvery grey on the high points of brow and cheek.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSixty centimetres high on a footprint of 21 by 21 cm, it fits a deep windowsill in a study, where side light picks out the cords of the neck. It is the second of three heads after Messerschmidt, the one in which the strain runs down from the knotted brow into the throat.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48772906156379,"sku":"KB0015","price":962.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/Kuzco_bronze_sculpture_head_bronze_patina_2_green_fbf9f901-314f-4f5f-8343-7ed9b32dbbf0.jpg?v=1727092097"},{"product_id":"bronzen-hoofd-18e-eeuw-3","title":"Bronze Character Head after Messerschmidt (3 of 3)","description":"\u003cp\u003eEverything in this bronze character head pulls towards the mouth. The lips are pressed together and pushed forward, the chin folds into deep creases beneath them, and two grooves run from the nostrils around the mouth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbove, a band of horizontal furrows crosses the forehead and the eyes narrow to slits under drawn brows. The cropped hair over the crown is stippled into a matt cap against the smoother skin of the face. Every bust is a new lost-wax cast (\u003cem\u003ecire perdue\u003c\/em\u003e), made by hand; its patina, between dark brown and black, shines on the forehead and cheeks and deepens in every crease. The bust is cut across the chest and narrows into a bronze foot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 60 cm high and 20 cm deep, the head can stand alone on a writing desk, the face near the eye level of whoever sits there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe model is the series of character heads by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783), who worked on them from 1770 until his death: sixty-nine heads, of which forty-nine survive. His originals are in alabaster or a tin-lead alloy, and the fanciful titles attached to them were given only after he died. Of the three heads in this series, this is the most closed, the whole expression held in behind the lips.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48772915593563,"sku":"KB0016","price":1145.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/Kuzco_bronze_sculpture_head_bronze_patina_3_green_da20e70f-c7ac-462e-b557-a1b082358b00.jpg?v=1727092098"},{"product_id":"marmeren-hoofd-van-zeus","title":"White Marble Head of Zeus on Marble Base","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Zeus head is carved by hand in white marble with a faint ivory tone: a bearded god, his hair parted in the middle and falling in long, wavy locks. A fillet runs through the hair, set with pine cones and fan-shaped plant motifs at the temples and at the back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe beard is worked in tight rolled curls, the lips are slightly parted and the eyes are deep-set. A slim steel pin holds the head above a cubic base of black marble dense with white veining, so the pale face stands out against the dark stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe head follows the type of the \u003cem\u003eZeus of Otricoli\u003c\/em\u003e in the Sala Rotonda of the Vatican Museums, a colossal marble head of the first half of the first century BC, found at Otricoli in the papal excavations of 1781–1782. The Vatican head wears no fillet, so this is a free interpretation of the bearded-god type rather than a copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith its base it stands 58 cm high and weighs about 40 kg, so it needs a solid surface such as a marble-topped console in a study, seen in three-quarter view. From behind, the mass of locks and the pine cones of the fillet are carved as carefully as the face.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49183764152667,"sku":"KM0006","price":1580.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/KuzcomarblesculptureheadofZeusbustewhitemarblestatueonblackmarblebase_2.jpg?v=1756131242"},{"product_id":"romeinse-torso-met-kuras-en-paludamentum","title":"Roman Torso with Cuirass and Paludamentum – large","description":"\u003cp\u003eA general's cloak, the paludamentum, falls from the right shoulder of this hand-carved white marble torso and hangs in deep folds across the lower back. Over the chest sits a muscle cuirass, the \u003cem\u003elorica musculata\u003c\/em\u003e, worked in relief with a small frontal head, two winged griffins facing each other and a shell at the waist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLion masks finish the shoulder straps and the upper row of \u003cem\u003epteryges\u003c\/em\u003e, the tabs that hang below the waist of Roman armour. Everything is cut by hand, and a sandy finish lets light and shadow play over the relief.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA decorated cuirass worn with a cloak marked the statues of Roman commanders and emperors. The best-known example is the \u003cem\u003eAugustus of Prima Porta\u003c\/em\u003e in the Vatican Museums, from the beginning of the first century AD; there the cloak is wrapped round the hips, and its breastplate shows a different scene, so this torso follows the type rather than that statue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhotographed here on a black plinth, the torso stands 145 cm high and belongs on the floor: set in a wall niche or at the far end of a long room, the cuirass reads from across the space. From the back, the straps with their lion masks and tassels and the heavy folds of the cloak are carved as fully as the front.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49918102241627,"sku":"KM0026","price":6800.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/Marble_sculpture_Roman_Cuirassed_Torso_with_Paludamentum_Kuzco_Art_Maison_2.jpg?v=1755874562"},{"product_id":"romeinse-marmeren-torso","title":"Roman Marble Torso on Black Marble Base","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Roman marble torso shows a male nude in warm, lightly aged stone, with a folded mantle rolled round the neck and dropping over the left shoulder. Head, arms and legs are left out by design, and the fragment rests on two steel pins above a tall plinth of black marble veined in dark grey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChest and abdomen are carved by hand in broad, calm planes, while small pits and chips across the surface suggest a piece long buried in the ground. The break at the hips is left rough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFragmentary nudes of this kind go back to antique marbles such as the \u003cem\u003eBelvedere Torso\u003c\/em\u003e in the Vatican and the \u003cem\u003eAres Borghese\u003c\/em\u003e type in the Louvre, which sculptors have studied since the Renaissance. Neither wears a mantle; here the cloth softens the line of the shoulder and frames the bare chest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith its plinth the piece measures 128 cm high, 43 cm long and 34 cm wide, so it stands on the floor beside a fireplace, where the black base echoes the grate and the pale marble shows against the chimney breast. From every side the contrast holds: weathered white stone above, dark veined marble below.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49919407358299,"sku":"KM0027","price":3700.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/KuzcoArtMaisonRomanMarbleTorsosculptureonblackmarblebaseromanstatue.jpg?v=1737280781"},{"product_id":"buste-toetanchamon-marmer","title":"Marble Bust of Tutankhamun","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Tutankhamun bust is hand-carved from three stones: white marble for the face, neck and ears, warm travertine for the headcloth, and inlaid black marble for its stripes and the plaited beard. It is inspired by the gold funerary mask from the king's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, freely interpreted rather than copied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pharaoh wears the striped \u003cem\u003enemes\u003c\/em\u003e headcloth, the ceremonial plaited beard and, on the brow, a rearing cobra beside the head of a vulture. The face is smooth and idealised, as was usual in Egyptian sculpture, and a broad collar of black, white and green bands closes the chest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cobra is the uraeus, a royal symbol of protection which, from the king's forehead, was thought to spit fire at Egypt's foes; with the vulture it stands for the 'Two Ladies', Wadjet and Nekhbet. In the Grand Tour manner, the bust translates its ancient model into coloured stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach new bust is cut by hand, with the black marble set into the travertine as true inlay, so the mottled yellow-orange stone and its dark bands meet at clean joints. At 100 kg it needs a sturdy pedestal; between two bookcases in a study, the striped headcloth stands out against the rows of spines.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52122997784923,"sku":"KM0044","price":6450.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/marble-sculpture-bust-of-tutankhamun-hand-carved-travertine-white-marble-black-marble.jpg?v=1769584329"},{"product_id":"hoofd-medusa-rood-marmer","title":"Medusa Head in Rosso Levanto Marble","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Medusa head is hand-carved in Rosso Levanto, a deep red-brown marble crossed by bright white veins. Snakes coil through the hair on both sides and are knotted beneath the chin, and two small wings rise from the crown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe veining runs across forehead and cheeks, so each piece is marked differently by its own block of stone. The head rests on a rectangular block of the same red marble and a turned socle of white marble; from behind it is hollowed out like a mask.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRather than the frightening gorgon of earlier images, this is the 'beautiful' Medusa, with a calm, symmetrical face in the manner of the \u003cem\u003eMedusa Rondanini\u003c\/em\u003e in the Glyptothek in Munich, after a Greek model of the fifth century BC. In antiquity a gorgon's head, the gorgoneion, was set up to ward off evil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWeighing about 100 kg and standing 80 cm high, the sculpture needs a sturdy pedestal or a deep wall niche; against a pale wall the red stone reads from across the room. The white socle lifts the marble clear of its support and sets off the colour of the stone.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52123420262747,"sku":"KM0046","price":6800.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/marble-sculpture-head-of-medusa-red-marble-statue-on-white-marble-base.jpg?v=1769592139"},{"product_id":"romeinse-marmeren-torso-met-toga","title":"Roman Marble Torso Sculpture with Toga","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Roman marble torso sculpture carries its toga lightly: one length of cloth thrown over the left shoulder, the chest and abdomen left bare. Carved by hand as a new piece, the torso has an aged finish that warms the white marble to ochre and rose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cloth is where the carving shows most. At the front its edge breaks into crisp, deeply cut folds over the collarbone; behind, it drops the full height of the back in long vertical pleats before winding round the left forearm. The chest and ridged abdomen are modelled with the same care, and the granular surface has the look of excavated stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStrictly, a Roman toga wrapped the whole body; this lighter cloak belongs to the heroic nude. Its arrangement echoes the Hermes of Hadrian's time in the Octagonal Court of the Vatican Museums: there too the travelling cloak is thrown over the shoulder and wound round the forearm, in a type the museum traces to bronzes of the school of Praxiteles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo dark metal rods lift the headless fragment above a tall block plinth in pale grey stone. Because the cloak covers the whole back, the torso rewards a place in front of a large mirror, where the bare chest and the draped back can be seen at once.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53613959053659,"sku":null,"price":2495.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/Roman-Marble-Torso-sculpture-on-grey-marble-base-roman-statue.jpg?v=1784320237"},{"product_id":"romeinse-marmeren-torso-van-het-belvedere","title":"Belvedere Torso Sculpture in Marble","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Belvedere torso is hand-carved in white marble and turns sharply at the waist: the chest swings one way, the thighs the other, and the body bends forward over a rock draped with an animal skin. Ridges of muscle fold across the abdomen where the twist is tightest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis new sculpture is carved by hand, breaks included. Neck, shoulders and thighs end in rough, granular stone, left unpolished against the smooth skin, so the piece reads as a fragment, as its model does. Fine grey and ochre veins cross the chest, and the figure sits on a plain block of pale marble.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat model is the \u003cem\u003eBelvedere Torso\u003c\/em\u003e in the Vatican Museums, signed by the Athenian sculptor Apollonios in the first century BC, probably after a Greek bronze; the museum's preferred reading is Ajax contemplating his suicide. Michelangelo used it as a model for figures in the Sistine Chapel, and with the \u003cem\u003eAres Borghese\u003c\/em\u003e type it set the pattern for the heroic male nude.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 84 cm high, the torso can stand on its own block on the floor of a bay window, with no further plinth; side light there picks out the twist of the abdomen. From behind, the back is worked as fully as the front, down to the shoulder blades and the groove of the spine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53613998735707,"sku":null,"price":2955.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/roman-marble-torso-of-belvedere-torso-white-marble-fragmented_2.jpg?v=1784321448"},{"product_id":"romeinse-marmeren-gaddi-torso","title":"Gaddi Torso – Roman marble sculpture","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Gaddi torso turns hard at the waist: the chest swings to one side, the stomach muscles pull tight and the back arches against a force the fragment no longer shows. Head and limbs are left out on purpose, and the rough, tooled breaks set off the smooth modelling of ribs and flank.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach example is carved anew by hand in white marble, faintly veined in grey, so no two are quite alike. A rust-brown iron rod lifts it above a white marble plinth with concave ends, the front inlaid with a panel of dark green serpentine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe model is the Gaddi Torso in the Uffizi, a Greek marble of the first century BC bought by Grand Duke Peter Leopold from the Gaddi collection in Florence in 1778. The museum reads it as a centaur with its hands bound behind its back, and it was deliberately left unrestored; Amico Aspertini painted it into his \u003cem\u003eAdoration of the Shepherds\u003c\/em\u003e of 1515.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 76 cm high on a footprint of 35 by 20 cm, the torso needs little room. On a column pedestal of about 90 cm at a stair landing, the chest comes up to head height and light from the side runs across the ribs. From behind, the arched back shows a figure carved in the round.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53703067337051,"sku":"KM0036","price":1995.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/white-marble-gaddi-torso-roman-sculpture-side-view.jpg?v=1785625463"},{"product_id":"romeinse-torso-met-kuras-en-paludamentum-middel","title":"Roman Torso with Cuirass and Paludamentum – medium","description":"\u003cp\u003eCarved by hand in white marble, this medium version of the Roman cuirass torso measures 85 cm in height and has a sandy, lightly aged surface with fine crazing. Two black metal rods lift it above a pale, cream-coloured cubic pedestal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStatues of Roman commanders and emperors wore this combination: a muscle cuirass (\u003cem\u003elorica musculata\u003c\/em\u003e), hanging tabs (\u003cem\u003epteryges\u003c\/em\u003e) and a military cloak, the paludamentum. The \u003cem\u003eAugustus of Prima Porta\u003c\/em\u003e, found in the Villa of Livia and now in the Vatican Museums, is the most famous of them; this torso takes up the type, not that statue, and its breastplate carries a relief of its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the chest a small head looks straight out, with two winged griffins confronted below it and a shell at the waist. The shoulder straps end in lion masks, a pleated flap covers the left shoulder, and the cloak drops from the right shoulder before wrapping the lower back in broad folds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt this scale the torso sits comfortably on a low, deep sideboard in a study, which brings the chest relief close to eye level. Beside the larger 145 cm version, this model keeps the full decoration of the cuirass at a size that fits on furniture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kuzco Art Maison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53708388139355,"sku":"KM0041","price":2450.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/files\/roman-white-marble-torso-curas-paludamentum_7ffe3fc3-1cdb-48db-a27a-e56832ece954.jpg?v=1786556167"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0863\/6540\/5531\/collections\/KuzcomarblesculptureheadofZeusbustewhitemarblestatueonblackmarblebase_2.jpg?v=1785626174","url":"https:\/\/kuzcoartmaison.com\/en\/collections\/torsos-and-busts.oembed","provider":"Kuzco Art Maison","version":"1.0","type":"link"}