The cast represents a completely naked young boy, sitting on a rocky spur, bending forward in the act of removing a thorn from the sole of his left foot, resting on his right thigh. The head, inspired by models of Greek art of the fifth century. BC, has severe features, in particular in the rigid rendering of the hair, long and wavy, but compact around the head. The subject depicted is generally interpreted as a shepherd boy. The original bronze work, from which the cast derives, is kept in the Capitoline Museums and has been known since the 12th century; in 1471 Pope Sixtus IV donated it to the city of Rome, when the bronze was transferred from the Lateran to the Campidoglio. The statuette is considered an eclectic work, a copy of the second half of the 1st century. B.C