By genre sculpture is meant sculpture
which deals with incidents or situations illustrative of
every-day life. The conditions of the great age,
although they permitted a genre-like treatment in votive
sculptures and in grave-reliefs, offered few or no
occasions for works of pure genre, whose sole purpose is
to gratify the spectator. In the Hellenistic period,
however, such works became plentiful. Fig. 178 gives a
good specimen.
A boy of four or five is struggling in
play with a goose and is triumphant. The composition of
the group is admirable, and the zest of the sport is
delightfully brought out. Observe too that the
characteristic forms of infancy – the large head, short
legs, plump body and limbs – are truthfully rendered.
There is a large number of representations in ancient
sculpture of boys with geese or other aquatic birds;
among them are at least three other copies of this, same
group. The original is thought to have been of bronze.
(...)
F. B. Tarbell, A History of Ancient Greek Art
