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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1932.56.115
Title
Small Head of a Bearded God
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
1st-2nd century CE
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/146560

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Greek marble
Dimensions
17.5 cm (6 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Dr. Harris Kennedy, Milton, MA (by 1932), gift; to the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum, 1932.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Dr. Harris Kennedy, Class of 1894
Accession Year
1932
Object Number
1932.56.115
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
84

Small Head of a Bearded God

The nose is mostly broken away and rubbed down. The hair and beard are worn. There is considerable incrustation.

Evidently once part of a Roman household herm, the head is of Greek Imperial workmanship, perhaps to be dated in the first to second centuries A.D. The style has something reminiscent of the head of Zeus by Pheidias at Olympia, as transmitted through derivatives of the fourth century B.C. The quality of carving suggests this herm came from Attica or the Greek islands, for it has a sensitivity and lack of mechanical production not found in the decorative sculptures from Pompeii and Herculaneum.

A filleted head of Zeus or Dionysos of an Asiatic cult type, seemingly from Cyprus, is a slightly smaller variant of this head, perhaps from the same workshop along the western coast of Asia Minor or in the Greek islands. It came to Boston in 1871 or 1872 with the first Cesnola collection (Comstock, Vermeule, 1976, p. 135, no. 212).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • James R. McCredie, "Two Herms in the Fogg Museum", American Journal of Archaeology (1962), 66, pp. 188-189, pl. 56, figs. 3, 4
  • 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. 99, no. 84

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