Seated Hermes from the Villa of the Papyri
- Title:
- Seated Hermes from the Villa of the Papyri
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Mihaloew, Andreya
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900 (cast)
ca. 1st century BCE to 79 CE (Roman copy)
ca. mid 4th to early 3rd century BCE (Greek original)
2015 (image)
- Site:
- Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum, Italy (discovery site
discovered 1758) (original) - Location:
- Klarman Hall Atrium, Cornell University
previously, Goldwin Smith Hall (Room 128) and Warehouse
Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum, Italy (discovery site
discovered 1758) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0847
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 120
276 - File Name:
- CCC_0847.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 115 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Roman, after Greek
- Style/Period:
- Roman Late Republican or Early Imperial, after Greek Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
bronze sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Hermes (Greek deity)
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 120 (centimeters, height)
plinth: 65 x 83 (centimeters, width x diameter) - Description:
- This is a cast of a bronze statue of a seated Hermes found in 1758 in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. Hermes is represented here as an early adolescent, with lean muscles and narrow shoulders. He sits on a rock with his right leg extended and his left leg bent back. He rests his left arm on his left knee, and his right hand on the rock. He leans forward, twisting his head and upper torso slightly to his right. His hair is short and curly and his ears are prominent. Sandal straps with wings at the ankles are wound around his feet. In his resting left hand he holds a very short rod, the remains of what was probably a caduceus in the original. The cast has been painted black to appear as patinated bronze. The statue was repaired and restored in the eighteenth century, generally accurately, and then repaired again following the shattering of Hermes' head during the statue's return to Italy from Germany following World War II. The rock on which he is seated is modern. The statue type exists in statuettes and a gem and, by speculation only, has been linked to the fourth century BCE sculptor Lysippos or to his school. This cast was conserved in winter 2014-2015. The image attached to this record is of the object as conserved. From January until July 2015, this object was exhibited in the Bartels Gallery, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, as part of an exhibition titled "Cast and Present: Replicating Antiquity in the Museum and the Academy."
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 5625 - Bibliography:
- Carol C. Mattusch, The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005), 88-89, 216-222, and figs. 2.43, 5.70-5.83
Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 267-269 - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Naples, National Archaeological Museum (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.