Head of Hermes
Place found:Rome, Italy
Date: 2nd century A.D.
Dimensions:11 15/16 × 8 1/4 × 6 15/16 in. (30.4 × 20.9 × 17.6 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.
Object number: DEAC.86.134.145
Provenance: excavated in a Roman house on the Caelian hill in Rome, under the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, between 1887 and 1891; sold by Alfredo Turchi, Il Silenus di Via Margutta, Rome, to Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., (1921-2004), San Antonio, 1971; Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 1986 [accession number 86.134.145]; deaccessioned in January 2022 for restitution to Italy
Published References
P. Germano di S. Stanislao, La Casa Celimontana de SS. Martiri Giovanni e Paolo (Rome, 1894), 151, 152 fig. 32.
V. E. Gasdía, La casa pagano-cristiana del Celio (Rome, 1937), 366-367.
German Archaeological Institute, Rome, photo archive, negs. 65.2537, 65.2538.
H. Lauter, Zur Chronologie römischer Kopien nach Originalen des V. Jahrh. (Erlangen, 1969), 104 no. 8, 106, 169 n. 463.
F. Carinci, "Le statue del cortile," in Sculture di Palazzo Mattei (Studi Miscellanei 20, 1971/1972), 25 n. 30, pl. 33.c-d
S. Sande, "A Polykleitan head in the National Gallery of Oslo," Symbolae Osloenses 51 (1976), 160.
B. Vierniesel-Schlörb, Glyptothek München. Katalog der Skulpturen, vol. 2, Klassische Skulpturen des 5. und 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Munich, 1979), 72 no. 8.
D. Kreikenbom, Bildwerke nach Polyklet. Kopienkritische Untersuchungen zu den männlichen statuarischen Typen nach polykletischen Vorbildern. 'Diskophoros', Hermes, Doryphoros, Herakles, Diadumenos (Berlin, 1990), 49-50, 52, 159 no. II 11, pl. 87.
C. A. Picón, "Polykleitan and Related Sculptures in American Collections: Recent Acquisitions," in W. G. Moon, ed., Polykleitos, the Doryphoros and Tradition (Madison, 1995), 230-31.
S. Kansteiner, "Eine hochklassische Gruppe von Statuen des Hermes," Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologisches Instituts 130 (2015), 137.