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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1956.9
Title
Head of Ares, Roman copy after a Greek original of c. 430-420 BC
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
c. 110 CE
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291110

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Hymettan marble
Dimensions
32 cm h x 26 cm w x 31 cm d (12 5/8 x 10 1/4 x 12 3/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Meta and Paul J. Sachs
Accession Year
1956
Object Number
1956.9
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
17

Head of Ares

The end of the nose and all of the head on a diagonal line through the upper lip are broken away. The back of the head and helmet are missing from behind the right ear.

This head is a Roman copy of an original of ca. 430-420 B.C., known as the Ares Borhese. The head is wearing an Attic helmet with visor and rudimentary crest. The roughened yet cold surfaces and the drill points at the inner corners of the pupils of the eyes date this copy in the Trajanic period, ca. A.D. 110.

Replicas of the Ares Borghese, associated with Alkamenes about 420 BC, are discussed in connection with the statue found in Building M at Side in 1950 (Inan, 1975, pp. 47-50, no. 10, pl. xxii; Inan, 1975a, pp. 69-71, no. 1). The fact that the statue has been found in decorative and official contexts at a wide variety of locations around the Graeco-Roman world, from Italy to Asia Minor and North Africa, shows that the original was famous, certainly attributable to one of the major masters working in Athens a decade or so after the Parthenon was finished (Picard, 1939, 11, 1, p. 250, 11, 2, pp. 578-580. fig. 237 Louvre).

The complete statue, showing the god or a young hero in divine guise, may have been made for the cults of Ares expanded in Attica as a result of the Peloponnesian Wars. The slender, athletic figure stands with weight on the left leg, left hip thrown out, right arm and hand lowered to the side, and left arm flexed with hand grasping the spear. The figure takes its name from the marble copy in the Louvre, Paris, which came from the Borghese collection in Rome (Fuchs, 1969, pp. 94-96, fig. 86).

Jenifer Neils has recently suggested that the Ares Borghese may be a statue of Theseus on the basis of three characteristics: hairstyle, ankleband and stance (Neils, 1988, pp. 155-158).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum Notes, vol. 1, no. 1, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, December 1921), pp. 3-6
  • Sidney Deane, "Archaeological Discussions", American Journal of Archaeology (1922), 26, p. 204, fig. 1
  • George H. Chase, Greek and Roman Sculpture in American Collections, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1924), p. 71, fig. 81
  • A. D. Fraser, "A Myronic Head in the Fogg Museum of Art", American Journal of Archaeology (1925), 29, pp. 314-320, figs. 1,2
  • Hubert Phililppart, Collections d'antiquites classiques aux Etats-Unis, Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles, Revue de l'Universite de Bruxelles, Supplement (Brussels, Belgium, 1928), Vol.33 (4), p.3, p. 41
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, An Exhibition of Ancient Sculpture, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), p. 14, no. 36
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, Greek Art and Life, An Exhibition Catalogue, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), no. 180.
  • Tobias Dohrn, Attische Plastik vom Tode des Phidias bis zum Wirken der grossen Meister des IV Jahrhunderts v. Chr, Scherpe (Krefeld, 1957), pp. 67-69, p. 1c
  • Agnes Mongan, Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965]: given and bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1965), p. 199, list
  • George M. A. Hanfmann and David Gordon Mitten, "The Art of Classical Antiquity", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 362-369, p. 364, note 9
  • Irmgard Beck, Ares in Vasenmalerei, Relief und Rundplastik, Verlag Peter Lang (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1984), p. 110, note 399, p. 131, not 484
  • 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. 32, no. 17

Exhibition History

  • Greek Art and Life: From the Collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Private Lenders, Fogg Art Museum, 03/07/1950 - 04/15/1950
  • Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/2007 - 01/20/2008

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