Leather Cuirass

[Anonymous]

The lower edge is clearly what one would expect from a cuirass, while the armpit shows none and the "armour", at this point follows the body in the unrealistic "clinging" manner noted earlier by Giannis. Basically, the thing contradicts itself. I think the artist must have intended to convey the idea of armour, but whether metal or leather is impossible to guess.

The work undergone in illuminating the paint of such sculptures in that exhibit revealed that artists simply relied on painting on the edges of clothing or equipment much of the time. The same thing happened with that large archer statue they think is Paris: you can see the sleeves at the end of his arms, but nothing else shows up, and he looks like he's wearing some sort of full body jumpsuit. When they looked at the paint underneath, it turns out they just painted all the rest of the edges on. So, no, the artist in this case did not contradict himself.

Please read what I wrote again, Ruben. If the sculptor sculpts a cuirass edge and then paints an armhole appropriate to soft material, he contradicts himself.