A ROMAN MARBLE JANIFORM HERM BUST

CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE JANIFORM HERM BUST
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.
Archaistic in style, both depicting Hermes, one older, the other youthful, both with deeply-set heavy-lidded eyes and long hair bound in a fillet, the strands radiating from the crown and terminating in three rows of snail-curls above the forehead, with thick tendrils falling from behind the ears, along the neck and forward over the shoulders, the older with a full spade-shaped beard of wavy locks and a long downturned mustache framing full lips pressed together
13 in. (33 cm.) high

Provenance

with Seibu Department Store, Tokyo, 1979 (Jean-Loup Despras, Hellénisme Gréce Rome et Gandhara, no. 5).
Dr. Akira Hirabayashi, Tokyo, acquired from the above in 1979.

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Lot Essay

The older Hermes on this janiform bust is based on the now-lost statue by the Greek sculptor Alkamenes, known as the Hermes Propylaios, which was set up at the entrance to the Athenian Acropolis. It was sculpted in the archaistic style, using deliberately old-fashioned features, such as the snail-curls, in order to give the statue the sanctity associated with that of a much older work of art. The type was frequently copied in Hellenistic and Roman times. That the original can be assigned to Alkamenes is confirmed from the shaft of a copy from the 2nd century B.C., excavated at Pergamon, which carries an inscription attributing the work to him (see p. 457 in R. Grüssinger, V. Kästner and A. Scholl, Pergamon, Panorama der antiken Metropole).

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