Bearded Herm
This sculpture is a Flavian reformulation of a Phidian model and specifically the Curtius C. type. The herm depicts a male head with soft hair held by a thin band called a taenia and long wavy locks coming down over his back and chest. The curls are parted in the middle over his forehead and the tufts below the band cover his ears. The beard is divided in two sections and falls in vertical rows that end with small holes.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
Dimensions
height with base 181 cm; height without base 150 cm
Provenance
Borghese Collection, cited for the first time by Nibby (1832, p. 63); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese, 1833, C, p. 47, no. 82. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1996-1998, L. Persichelli
Commentary
The hair of this bearded herm radiates out from the top of the head and is held by a thin taenia. The locks are parted in the middle on the forehead and arranged in front of the ears in small soft curls, while long waves come down over the back and chest. The beard, divided vertically into two wide bands, falls in long curls that terminate in a hook at the base of the neck with a small hole at the end. The elongated face features high, protruding cheekbones, well-defined eyes and arched eyebrows. The closed mouth, with a full lower lip, is framed by thick moustaches that merge with the beard. The archaising bust can be traced to a prototype made by the Phidian school that circulated in different variants in the fifth century BCE and was used to represent various deities. This iconography, which Ludwig Curtius categorised as the C type, is found in numerous replicas, with slight variations (Curtius 1931, p. 58, no. 2). A comparable work of this type is a sculpture unearthed in a room in the Villa degli Anici along the via Latina (Vorster 1993, pp. 135–138, no. 59) while a reformulation of the C type and of the similar B type is found paired in a two-faced herm from the Villa dei Quintili (Krämer 2001, pp. 61–64).
The Borghese sculpture was mentioned by Antonio Nibby first in 1832 in Room I and later, in 1841, in its currently location in Room II.
Stylistically, the delicate rendering of the features in contrast with the chiaroscuro of the beard and hair suggest a date in the Flavian period.
Giulia Ciccarello
Bibliography
- A.Nibby, Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese, Roma 1832, p. 63.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1840, p. 13, n. 16.
- A.Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, p. 916, n. 16.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1854 (1873), p. 16, n. 19.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 27.
- G. Giusti, La Galerie Borghèse et la Ville Humbert Premier à Rome, Roma 1904, p. 24.
- L. Curtius, Zeus und Hermes. Studien zur Geschichte ihr es Ideals und seiner Überlieferung, in “Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts. Roemischeabteilung. Erganzungsheft”, München 1931.
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, (3° Edizione) Roma 1954, p. 10.
- R. Calza, Catalogo del Gabinetto fotografico Nazionale, Galleria Borghese, Collezione degli oggetti antichi, Roma 1957, p. 7, n. 7.
- P. Moreno, Museo e Galleria Borghese, La collezione archeologica, Roma 1980, p. 14.
- P. Moreno, S. Staccioli, Le collezioni della Galleria Borghese, Milano 1981, p. 100, fig. a p. 85.
- P. Moreno, C. Sforzini, I ministri del principe Camillo: cronaca della collezione Borghese di antichità dal 1807 al 1832, in “Scienze dell’Antichità”, 1, 1987, pp. 339-371, in part. p. 363.
- C. Vorster, Vatikanische Museen. Museo Gregoriano Profano ex Lateranense. Katalog der Skulpturen, II, 1 Römische Skulpturen des späten Hellenismus und der Kaiser zeit, 1. Werkenach Vorlagen und Bildformeln des 5. und 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr., Mainz am Rhein 1993.
- E. Krämer, Hermen bärtiger Götter. Klassische Vorbilder und Formen der Rezeption, Paderborn 2001.
- P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, in part. p. 93, n. 18.
- P. Moreno, A.Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, pp. 177-178, n. 154.
- Scheda di catalogo 12/00147845, P. Moreno 1976; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2020
