CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

The identification of this early Imperial type of herm (likely copied from Hellenistic originals) has changed through time, from the god of warfare Mars to Alexander the Great and other Hellenistic rulers, with Pyrrhus of Ponthus now being the most widely accepted interpretation, cf. C. Ruckert, Miniaturhermen aus Stein. Eine Vernachlässigte Gattung kleinformatiger Skulptur der römischen Villegiatur, Madrider Mitteilungen, vol. 39, 1998, pp. 177-178. For another similar herm bust in giallo antico in the Fitzwilliam Museum, cf. L. Budde and R. Nicholls, A Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1964, pp. 55-58, pl. 30, no. 88.