… sexual coming into being …
The Young Archer now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a sculpture of sexual discovery. The nude, sensuous, sinuous, lightly built, somewhat effeminate youth, an object of desire, draws an arrow from his quiver with a dreamy look. And what a quiver — made from the paw of a leonine animal: long, thick, strong, feral, in every way a contrast to the slim, delicate boy. In this play of contrasts, the boy’s act of drawing out his arrow from the quiver becomes a nascent sexual act. (see the three photos of the Young Archer below)
Did Michelangelo carve the Young Archer? There’s little or no evidence he did.