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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1960.449
Title
Head of a Long-Faced Philosopher, copy of a type from c. 320 BC
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
head, sculpture
Date
1st-3rd century CE
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/289258

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Marble, from western Asia Minor
Dimensions
actual: 39 cm (15 3/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Said to have come from near Naples.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson
Accession Year
1960
Object Number
1960.449
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
41

Head of a Long-Faced Philosopher

The surfaces are very water-worn. A section of the left rear of the head was damaged and restored in antiquity. The restoration is now missing, but the dowel remains.

This head could be a portrait of a late Antonine or Severan man of intellect in the traditions of Attic art in the fourth century B.C. The head had been compared with a supposed likeness of Aristippos, a sophist from Cyrene who lived about 435 to 360 B.C., was a predecessor of Epikouros, and a pupil of Socrates in Athens. Aristippos, identified by Karl Schefold, appears on a small double herm in Berlin; the other half of the herm shows his daughter (Richter, 1965, 11, pp. 175-176, figs. 1015k, also 1016, 1017).

The face of the old man in the Berlin double herm is that of a typical elder on a large Attic grave relief, such as the mourner contemplating the heroized hunter-athlete on the famous stele from the Ilissos River, in the National Museum, Athens (Diepolder, 1931, pp. 51, 59, pl. 48). The Robinson head might still be the same distinguished intellectual of the fourth century BC world, Aristippos, or someone else, but, despite its worn surfaces, the face has more individuality and character than the man in the Berlin double herm.

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • David Moore Robinson, "Unpublished Sculpture in the Robinson Collection", American Journal of Archaeology (1955), 59, p. 28, pl. 21, fig. 48
  • Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), p. 27, no. 211
  • 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. 57, no. 41

Exhibition History

  • The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961
  • Light and Colour, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, 12/17/1965 - 02/20/1966

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