Sculptures of children from Pompeii at the Archaeological Museum of Naples

Young boy, Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum

Sculpture – Marble (Height 125 cm) 1st century BC

This young boy, who appears to be addressing an audience whilst accompanying his speech with hand gestures, could be a young patrician practising the art of rhetoric necessary for his future career as a magistrate or politician.

A young boy, Herculaneum

The Cooking of the Wild Boar, Pompeii, Farnese Collection

Sculpture – Marble (Height 80 cm) 1st century

Cooking wild boar An adult and a child are preparing to cook a large wild boar in a cauldron.

The child has bent down to blow on the embers of the fire; he is resting one hand on the still-cold cauldron whilst pushing a branch into the fire with the other.

The child’s puffed-out cheeks show that he is blowing with all his might to stoke the embers, whilst the man cleans the boar’s skin with a scraper.

This sculpture may depict the sacrifice of the pig, which formed part of the ceremonies associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, as an offering to the underworld deities.

Cooking wild boar

Seated child holding a goose, Pompeii

Sculpture – Marble – 1st century

This sculpture of a small naked child seated and holding a goose in his hands served as a fountain spout; the water flowed from the goose’s beak.

Child seated holding a goose, Pompeii, Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy

A child sitting and holding a goose

A seated child holding a goose, Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy

A child sitting and holding a goose

Child caressing a dove, Vesuvius region

Sculpture – Marble – Mid-1st century

This small child is standing and speaking softly to the dove he is caressing whilst holding it tenderly close in his arms.

Child stroking a dove, Vesuvius region, Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy

Child with a dove

Child frightened by a toad, Casa del Camillo, Pompeii

Sculpture – Marble – Second half of the 1st century

This child is seized by panic upon seeing the enormous toad under the rock, right between his chubby legs.

The little boy makes a gesture of pushing it away with his hand and stepping back whilst leaning on one leg, with a cry of fear written all over his face.

This sculpture served as a fountain where water flowed from the toad’s mouth.

A frightened child

Child with Fruit, Casa del Camillo, Pompeii

Child with fruit Sculpture – Marble – Second half of the 1st century

This lovely little sculpture conveys a great tenderness in this seated child with a bag full of fruit between his spread legs; this bag slung over his shoulder is a nebride.

Beautiful colours once highlighted the fruit, and the features of this cherub’s tender face, framed by his lovely curly hair and with his eyes still clearly defined; traces of these colours are still visible on this statue, which served as a fountain.

One can see the hole left by the water inlet pipe between the child’s thighs: a little Manneken Pis from antiquity.

Child with a hare, Casa del Camillo, Pompeii

Sculpture – Marble – Second half of the 1st century

This sculpture depicts a beautiful child sitting and smiling with delight as he looks at the hare he is holding by its hind legs.

The poor hare has its mouth wide open in fear, revealing the opening through which the water flowed from this fountain.

Child with a hare

Sleeping young fisherman, Casa della Seconda Fontana Piccola, Pompeii

Sculpture – Marble – 1st century

This little fisherman has fallen asleep, wrapped in his cloak, lying on the ground with his legs tucked up like a newborn baby, his head resting on a fishing net.

He is resting after work, keeping the basket full of fish placed before him tightly closed.

Water from the fountain flowed out of the hollow fish trap placed beneath the head of the sleeping little fisherman.

Sleeping Little Fisherman, Casa della Seconda Fontana Piccola, Pompeii, Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy

Little Sleeping Fisherman