A marble sculpture depicts the head of a man with a long beard and rows of curls above the forehead.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

A white marble sculpture depicts the head of a man with a long rectangular beard. The beard consists of four rows of long curved tufts of hair, rendered in a stylized geometric pattern. There is a thick ring of three rows of stacked corkscrew curls above the forehead. In contrast to the more stylized hair patterns, the facial features are more classically rendered as smooth and realistic. The eyes are almond-shaped, and the nose is thin and straight. There is some minor chipping at the brow at right.

Gallery Text

Greek sculptors occasionally looked back to earlier styles. This head of Hermes is an archaizing work: the rows of corkscrew curls above the forehead go back to the Archaic period (600–480 BCE), while the facial features are in the Classical style of the later fifth century BCE. Hermes, the Roman Mercury, was the messenger god. He was associated with boundaries and led the souls to the underworld. Herms — pillars topped with the god’s head and equipped with genitalia — were often placed to protect crossroads and gates. In Roman times, they decorated villa gardens and gymnasia. There are different explanations for the archaizing features prevalent on Greek and Roman herm heads. Perhaps they were felt to be appropriate for the herm’s primitive sculptural form. Alternatively, they may have derived from a stylistic trend in the work of the Classical Greek sculptor Alkamenes, with whom this statue type has been associated.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1960.463
Title
Head of Hermes
Other Titles
Alternate Title: The Hermes Propylaios of Alkamenes, copy of original of c. 430 BC created for the Athenian Acropolis
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
1st century BCE-1st century CE
Period
Roman Republican period, Late, to Early Imperial
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/289234

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3200, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Classical Sculpture
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pentelic marble; modern beard repaired with carrara marble
Technique
Carved
Dimensions
33 cm h x 20 cm w x 22 cm d (13 x 7 7/8 x 8 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
David M. Robinson, Baltimore, MD, (by 1960), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1960.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson
Accession Year
1960
Object Number
1960.463
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Commentary
This head is possibly modeled on a Greek herm of c. 430-420 BCE.

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
16

The Hermes Propylaios

Roman copy of an original (ca. 430 B.C.) created for the Acropolis of Athens; fine-grained, mainland Greek marble. The side-locks were made separately and attached with dowels. There is some damage, especially in the hair. The lower part of the beard and the nose are restored. A section of the beard below the mouth is rejoined.

This Hermes has been identified by inscriptions as a variation on two groups of sculptures (the Pergamon-Berlin series and the Ephesos-Munich-Leningrad series) with the work of Alkamenes, evidently set up on the north side of the west facade of the Propylaia (Richter, 1970, p. 182). This creation has been dated in the time of the Roman emperor Augustus (27 BC to AD 14) and shows the good, lively quality of such imperial workmanship from ateliers around Athens itself. A similar herm formerly in the art market in Lucerne suggests that here the beard has been restored with an extra lower row of curls (Ars Antiqua, A.G., 1962, p. 13, no. 49, pl. XVII); another of the Pergamene type, and with a similar, full beard, was long in the Villa Mattei in Rome (Paaribeni, E., 1981, pp. 8-84, no. 2). A herm of the type or types created by Alkamenes with such a long, "triple-decker" beard as restored here would probably have been confused or conflated with the bearded, draped Dionysos "Sardanapallus" identified with a work of Praxiteles in the fourth century BC (Johnson, 1931, pp. 33-34, no. 27).

Such terminal figures or herms, including busts rather than complete shafts, were among the ornamenta or furnishings for courtyards and gardens that Romans of wealth, like Cicero, imported from Attica and elsewhere for their town houses and country villas or estates.

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • David Moore Robinson, "Unpublished Sculpture in the Robinson Collection", American Journal of Archaeology (1955), 59, No. 1, p. 22, pl. 13, fig. 10
  • Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), pp. 27-28, no. 215
  • James R. McCredie, "Two Herms in the Fogg Museum", American Journal of Archaeology (1962), 66, pp. 187-188, pl. 56, figs. 1, 2
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Walter Cahn, Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, MA, 1977), p. 32, under no. 41
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 31, no. 16

Exhibition History

  • The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961
  • 32Q: 3200 West Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu