2015.31, Head of Herakles, c. 1st century C.E., marble | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

This composite sculpture is as interesting for its later history in 18th-century French art as it is for its Roman origins. Two separate remains of Roman statues were excavated in Rome by Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661-1742), who amassed an impressive collection of antiquities between 1723 and 1732. In this case, the bust is related to a late Hellenistic Greek Herakles sculpture, now known through Roman versions in the Vatican Museums and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It probably dates to the late 1st century C.E. The shoulders, clad in a tunic with a circular brooch and a fringed mantle, may be dated to the mid-2nd century C.E. Polignac employed the sculptor/restorer Lambert Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759), who had worked for Louis XV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia, to create a work from the two pieces. Adam called the bust that he had recreated a bust of the late 2nd century C.E. emperor Commodus, and published the bust as Commodus in his Recueil de sculptures grecques et romaines, Paris 1755, plate 55. The sculpture was a payment to Adam for other work he had done for Polignac, and after Adam's death it (as well as the rest of Adam's collection) was sold at auction.

As the bust is the most significant part of this sculpture, it is important to think of it as a bust of Herakles, similar to the so-called 'Albani' type of Herakles seen in the Vatican Museums and MFA Boston sculptures. The great Greek hero is shown as a mature man with a long beard, full mustache and deep-set, hypnotic eyes. The head also has strong elements of realism that reflect the Roman taste for duplicating actual appearances in art. It could as well be a portrait of a living man. Herakles, the Roman Hercules, is the human hero par excellence, who completes his famous twelve labors, despite being pursued relentlessly by the goddess Hera, because Herakles was the child of her husband Zeus and Alcmene. In the end, Herakles was the only human hero to join the gods on Mount Olympus after death.

Adapted from

Anne Bromberg, DMA unpublished material, May 2015.

NOTES

unpublished material is the acquisition justification (2015.31)

Catalogue essays

Roman Portrait Sculpture

Artist/designers

Cultures

The Romans

Geography

Process/materials

Historical periods

Italic and Roman Chronology

Individuals

Herakles (Greek hero)

Subject terms

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

1723-1732: Excavated by Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661-1742), Rome, Italy

After 1732-d. 1759: Lambert Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759)

c. 1763: Private Collection, Versailles, France, sold at auction [1]

Before 2015: "Property from an English Private Collection" [2]

From 2015: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased at auction, "Egyptian, Classical, & Western Asiatic Antiquities," Sotheby's, New, York, June 3, 2015, Sale N09362, lot 33, as "A Marble Head of Herakles," Cecil and Ida Green Acquisition Fund, gift of David T. Owsley via the Alvin and Lucy Owsley Foundation, and Wendover Fund

[1] Acquisition Consideration Authorization Form in Collections Records Object File (2015.31)

[2] Sotheby's auction catalog, "Egyptian, Classical, & Western Asiatic Antiquities," Sotheby's, New, York, June 3, 2015, Sale N09362, lot 33, pg 30

AUDIO ASSETS

264714177: UMO, Dr. Nancy Ramage, Charles A. Dana Professor of the Humanities and Arts Emerita at Ithaca College, speaks about the multilayered history of one of the DMA's newest acquisitions, a marble bust of Herakles that reveals the talents of three artistic hands. This lecture is sponsored by the Boshell Family Lecture Series on Archaeology.

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

I.DAI.images.Arachnae~Compare to one of two known heads of Herakles of the Vatican/Albani type.
I.DAI.images.Arachnae~Compare to the only other known head of Herakles of the same type, on a double herm of Herakles and Hebe at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Archive.org~Peruse Lambert Sigisbert Adam's 1755 publication of engravings, "Recueil de sculptures grecques et romaines."

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Apply to objects where number equals 2015.31

General Description

This composite sculpture is as interesting for its later history in 18th-century French art as it is for its Roman origins. Two separate remains of Roman statues were excavated in Rome by Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661-1742), who amassed an impressive collection of antiquities between 1723 and 1732. In this case, the bust is related to a late Hellenistic Greek Herakles sculpture, now known through Roman versions in the Vatican Museums and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It probably dates to the late 1st century C.E. The shoulders, clad in a tunic with a circular brooch and a fringed mantle, may be dated to the mid-2nd century C.E. Polignac employed the sculptor/restorer Lambert Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759), who had worked for Louis XV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia, to create a work from the two pieces. Adam called the bust that he had recreated a bust of the late 2nd century C.E. emperor Commodus, and published the bust as Commodus in his Recueil de sculptures grecques et romaines, Paris 1755, plate 55. The sculpture was a payment to Adam for other work he had done for Polignac, and after Adam's death it (as well as the rest of Adam's collection) was sold at auction.

As the bust is the most significant part of this sculpture, it is important to think of it as a bust of Herakles, similar to the so-called 'Albani' type of Herakles seen in the Vatican Museums and MFA Boston sculptures. The great Greek hero is shown as a mature man with a long beard, full mustache and deep-set, hypnotic eyes. The head also has strong elements of realism that reflect the Roman taste for duplicating actual appearances in art. It could as well be a portrait of a living man. Herakles, the Roman Hercules, is the human hero par excellence, who completes his famous twelve labors, despite being pursued relentlessly by the goddess Hera, because Herakles was the child of her husband Zeus and Alcmene. In the end, Herakles was the only human hero to join the gods on Mount Olympus after death.