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An Inscribed Marble Portrait-Herm in the British Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

D. E. L. Haynes
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Extract

Pl. V and figs. 1–3 illustrate a small inscribed portrait-herm recently acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum, to whom thanks are due for permission to publish it here. It was discovered in 1948 in the lumber-room of a Kentish antique-dealer, but nothing more is known of its history. The material is a coarse-grained, rather grey marble which resembles specimens from Proconnesus. The total height of the herm is 22 inches (56 cm.); from the top of the inscription panel to the top of the head measures 8 ½ inches (21.5 cm.). The tip of the nose part of a cloak thrown over one of the shoulders, more probably the left, since this is the shoulder over which the cloak is normally draped. The notch, to judge from its position, was part of the lowest linea transversa on the left flank. In its general pose the figure must have been close to the type of the Belvedere Hermes. From shoulder to fork it measured roughly 21·5 inches (541·5 cm.), from which we may estimate that the complete figure stood just over 4 feet high (11·20 m.).

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 73 , November 1953 , pp. 138 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1953

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References

1 1948. 10–19.1.

2 Amelung, , Sculpturen des vaticanischen Museums II, pl. 12Google Scholar, no. 53.

3 Cf. the probable representation of one-eyed blindness in heads of the so-called ‘Lycurgus’ type (Strong, , Catalogue of the Greek & Roman Antiques in the possession of Lord Melchett, p. 26Google Scholar, no. 20).

4 Vessberg, , Studien zur Kunstgeschichte der römischen Republik, pll. XXX 1Google Scholar, XXXI 3, XLII 2, XLIII 2, LXI 1–3 & 4, LXV 1.

5 Cf. Hekier, , ÖJh XXI/XXII, 194 f.Google Scholar Berlin N0. 415(= Blümel R 65) is not Trajanic, but dates from the end of the second century.

6 Brunn and Arndt, Porträts, No. 382.

7 Hesperia V, 16 f., fig. 14.

8 Op. cit. 254 f.