Object Description
An exceptional and well studied large-scale carving of a torso in black basalt after the Roman antique. Depicted life-sized, standing in contrapposto with his weight on his left leg, the right slightly advanced, the left arm projecting forward, the figure with softly-modeled musculature.
Black basalt is a very fine-grained igneous rock and is rarely used in sculpture due to its incredible hardness – harder than granite.