Spinario (Boy with Thorn)

A naked boy absorbed in removing a thorn from his foot — one of the most beloved ancient bronzes ever made, and one of the first classical sculptures to enter a public collection, donated to the Capitoline by Pope Sixtus IV in 1471 in the founding gift of the world's oldest public museum. Copied relentlessly from the Renaissance onward: by Donatello, Ghiberti, Verrocchio, and dozens more. The quiet intimacy and technical finesse of the pose make it feel genuinely modern after 2,000 years.