CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.

This impressive life-sized figure of Mercury depicts him standing with his weight on his right leg, with the left leg slightly advanced. He is nude but for a chlamys draped over his left shoulder, falling down the back and extending across his left forearm. That Mercury is depicted is suggested by the groove in the drapery over his arm, which must have been sculpted to accommodate his separately-made caduceus. While the musculature is well defined, the lack of pubic hair indicates his youthfulness.

Numerous depictions of Mercury show him with similar drapery and with various attributes, although the modelling of the musculature is frequently more robust and with more pronounced contrapposto, as seen with the Hermes Richelieu in Paris or the Hermes Andros-Farnese type (see G. Siebert, “Hermes,” LIMC, vol. V, nos. 946a and 950a). All are Roman creations thought to be based on a post-Polykleitan prototype, possibly of the mid-4th century B.C. (see p. 337 in B. Ridgway, Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture). The type was also adapted by the Romans for Imperial portraits and also for use in funerary contexts, where the gods' attributes would be excluded.