Herm of Hercules as a Boy, with modern head
This herm, which has been heavily restored and has a modern head, depicts Hercules as a young boy, wearing the leontè (the skin of the Nemean lion killed by the hero), which covers the entire bust and part of the shaft. The arms are bent, and the hands clenched in a stylised fist. The figure holds a club in his left hand, resting on his left shoulder.
In 1700, the sculpture was recorded in the park of the Villa, where it was a pendant to one of a similar subject, displayed on either side of a door in the wall that surrounded the courtyard of the Palazzina del Custode del Gallinaro. In 1832, it was documented in its current location, in Room II.
The realism of the carving, particularly that of the animal skin, suggests a date for the work in the mid second century CE.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
white marble with blue veining
Dimensions
Provenance
Borghese Collection, recorded for the first time in 1700 by Montelatici in the park of the Villa, in the wall that surrounded the courtyard of the Palazzina del Custode del Gallinaro, on one side of a door (p. 112). In 1832, it was mentioned inside the Palazzina in room II (Nibby, p. 79). Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese, C., p. 46, no. 68. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 18th century - Interventions executed in marble and stucco. The two plinths have been restored; in the marble part, the tail is damaged, there is a chip along the front fold, another on the left side, the club is almost entirely damaged, there are numerous chips around the neck and head of the wild figure covering the head of the Erma, as well as the neck and head of the young boy; subsequent interventions were made on the nose of the modern head.
- 1966 - Tito Minguzzi
- 1996/97 - Liana Persichelli
Commentary
In 1700, Montelatici recorded the sculpture in the park of the Villa, in the wall that surrounded the courtyard of the Palazzina del Custode del Gallinaro, symmetrically arranged as a pendant to an adult Hercules (inv. LXXXVI), one on either side of a door (p. 112). This location was confirmed by an eighteenth-century watercolour by Percier that shows the sculptures in two niches (Di Gaddo 1997, p. 152). In 1832, Nibby mentioned two herms in Room II, one of which he described as a ‘young faun, also in Pentelic marble, wrapped in a nebris, to which the restorer gave a club in place of its normal attribute, the pedum’; this was probably the present Hercules (p. 74). The next year, the work was recorded in the Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese as on display in Room II, a room ‘dedicated to Hercules’, and described as a ‘Young Hercules Terminal, with a ram skin, on a base with a bas-relief’ (C., p. 46, no. 68). In her catalogue of the ancient sculptures in the Borghese Collection, Calza described the herm as a ‘garden decoration’ (1957, p. 12, no. 95).
The hero, portrayed as a young boy, is almost entirely enveloped by the leontè, which even covers part of the shaft of the herm, concealing the position of the bent arms, which can be just barely discerned. The hands, which are not covered, are clenched in a typically childlike fist. The left hand holds the club; the right hand, the edge of the animal skin. The rendering of the latter, carved with a drill and a chisel to describe the fur, is realistic and detailed.
The herm has been heavily restored. The ancient parts include the staff, with most of the animal skin, the arms and the end of the club; the head is entirely modern. There are two herms of Hercules that share many of the same features with the Borghese sculpture, albeit with some differences. The first is in the garden of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, and wears the leontè over its head and draped over the arm, but the club is resting on the ground. The second, displayed in the Gallery of the Candelabra in the Vatican Museum, has bent arms held to the chest, with the right hand holding the animal skin, but the head is bare and there is no club (Stuart Jones 1926, p. 249, no. 98, pl. 87; Lippold 1956, p. 134, no. 41, pl. 64).
The style of the sculpture, modest use of the drill and precise rendering of the surface date the work to the mid second century CE.
Giulia Ciccarello
Bibliography
- D. Montelatici, Villa Borghese fuori di Porta Pinciana con l’ornamenti che si osservano nel di lei Palazzo, Roma 1700, p. 112.
- A. Nibby, Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese, Roma 1832, p. 74.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano del Palazzo della Villa Borghese, Roma 1840, p. 13, n. 13.
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, p. 916, n. 13.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano del Palazzo della Villa Borghese, Roma 1854, p. 15, n. 13.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 27.
- G. Giusti, La Galleria Borghese e la Villa di Umberto Primo a Roma, Roma 1904, p. 24.
- H. Stuart Jones, A catalogue of the ancient sculptures preserved in the municipal collections of Rome: the sculptures of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Oxford 1926.
- A. De Rinaldis, La R. Galleria Borghese in Roma, 1935, p. 11.
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, (3° Edizione) Roma 1954, p. 10.
- G. Lippold, Die Skulpturen des Vaticanischen Museums, III, 2, Berlin 1956.
- R. Calza, Catalogo del Gabinetto fotografico Nazionale, Galleria Borghese, Collezione degli oggetti antichi, Roma 1957, p. 12, n. 95.
- P. Moreno, S. Staccioli, Museo e Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica, Roma 1980, p. 14.
- P. Moreno, Le collezioni della Galleria Borghese, Milano 1981, p. 101, fig. a p. 88.
- B. Di Gaddo, L'Architettura di Villa Borghese. Dal giardino privato al parco pubblico, Roma 1997, p. 152.
- P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 92, n. 15.
- P. Moreno, A. Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, p. 175, n. 150.
- Scheda di catalogo 12/01008384, P. Moreno 1979; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2020
