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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1979.402
Title
Head of a Young God or Hero
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
c. 480 BCE
Period
Classical period, Early
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/287360

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Marble
Dimensions
3.9 cm (1 9/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, David M. Robsinson Fund through the Estate of Therese K. Straus
Accession Year
1979
Object Number
1979.402
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
15

Head of a Young God or Hero

The nose is chipped, and the top of the head is discolored. There are two drill holes above the ears. The hair is arranged in eleven curls around the forehead.

A number of heads of young gods or mortals--including the Apollo of the West Pediment at Olympia, a head in the Volos (Thessaly) Museum, and a head in the Cyrene Museum--are related, although no other has the exact arrangement of the curls around the forehead (Ridgway, 1970, pp. 57-58, figs. 73, 76-77, 80-83). A nearly life-sized head, with a neck probably worked for insertion in a herm, from the Ludwig Pollak and Jacob Hirsch collections, shows how such heads appeared as early Roman imperial copies in marble on a full-sized scale (Ars Antiqua, A.G. no. 1, May 2, 1959, pp. 12-13, no. 30, pls. 13, 14).

A life-sized head (albeit damaged, with most of the area above the forehead missing) once seen in the Basel and Zurich art markets would suggest that the tiny head at Harvard probably came from Sicily (Andre Emmerich Gallery, Inc., 1975). The tiny scale of this head, together with the fact that it is an original rather than a copy, suggests that this statue was carved in Sicily or Southern Italy between the Late Archaic and Transitional periods, a time when good marbles were relatively expensive in Western Greece.

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum Annual Report, 1978-1980 (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 172
  • 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. 30, no. 15

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