Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Antikensammlung /CC BY-SA 4.0, Re-use in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 4.0), CC BY-SA 4.0
The Knucklebones Player
- Non-identified artist
Around 140 AD; head reworked around 200 AD
- Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Antikensammlung, Berlin, Germany
Creator(s)
Title(s)
Date of creation
Around 140 AD; head reworked around 200 AD
Materials and techniques
Marble
Place of conservation
External links
Rights
Discovered in Rome in theearly 18th century and now housed in the Antikensammlung of theStaatliche Museen in Berlin, the marble statue of Knucklebone Player fromthe 2nd century CE is one of the most celebrated depictions of thistype to survive to the present day.
The girl, portrayed as smaller than life size, sits on a plinth with herlegs folded over each other, her torso leaning forward and turned to the left.Her head is tilted slightly, her large, flat eyes gaze into void. She wears achiton with buttoned sleeves that has slipped off her left shoulder, revealingher nascent bosom. Her left arm rests on the ground, while her right arm israised. Two astragali, small tarsal bones of mammals, which are known to havebeen used as gaming pieces in antiquity (mistakenly referred to as knucklebones,i.e. joints of the fingers, in scholarly literature) are held in her left hand,while two more rest on the plinth.