How you can use this image
This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC).
This image can be reproduced in any way apart from any commercial uses.
Wherever you reproduce the image or an altered version of it, you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s), the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other stated rights holders.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
DownloadNotes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
This is a reduced-scale replica of a 54-centimetre-high ancient Roman bronze fountain spout formed as a fisherman seated on a tree stump. Between his splayed legs is a protruding stump capped with a grotesque mask, from whose open mouth water jetted. The original bronze statuette held a rod and a basket and is believed to date from 50 BCE to 50CE. Now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples (inv. 4994), it was discovered in the garden of the elegant first-century BCE House of the Small Fountain in Pompei, during excavations that started in 1823 and ended in 1826–1827. The garden’s main decorative feature is an arched and pedimented fountain decorated with mosaics, shells and two bronze statuettes acting as decorative spouts on either side of the marble fountain basin: the fisherman (right) and a sleeping putto (left).
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Cambridge
Title
Seated Fisherman
Date
late 19th C or early 20th C (?)
Medium
bronze
Measurements
H 23 x W 17 x D 14.5 cm
Accession number
M.20-1951
Acquisition method
gift from The Honorable Mrs Nellie Ionides, 1951
Work type
Statue