Herm of Hercules, Wearing a Mantle
This herm portrays a bearded Hercules wearing the leontè, the skin of the Nemean Lion. The demigod is shown as a mature adult, in a meditative and weary pose. It is a replica of a type attested the Hellenistic age and can be dated to the Antonine period. The sculpture probably came from the same original location as an identical copy in the Capitoline Museum.
In 1700, it was displayed with a herm of Hercules as a boy in a niche in the wall that surrounded the courtyard of the current Fortezzuola. In 1841, it was recorded in the second room of the Palazzina Borghese.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
Dimensions
Provenance
Borghese Collection, cited in 1700 in the park, in the wall that surrounded the courtyard of the house of the ‘Custode del Gallinaro’ (Montelatici, p. 112); mentioned in the second room of the villa in 1832 by Nibby (p. 74); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, C., p. 46, no. 77. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- late 18th century - adaptations and reintegrations: the lion's skin, mouth, nose, muzzle eyes. In the plinth a part in the back. In the hero's face the upper lip with mustache, the nose, cheekbone and right ear, part of the left ear pinna, a splinter of the pad. The herm is broken into two reassembled parts.
- 1996-97 - Liana Persichelli
Commentary
In 1700, this sculpture was displayed with one of Hercules as a boy (inv. XC) to the sides of a door in the wall that surrounded the courtyard of the Palazzina of the ‘Custode del Gallinaro’ – now the Fortezzuola – in the Villa’s park (Montelatici, p. 112). This location is confirmed by an eighteenth-century drawing by Percier that shows the sculptures in two niches (Di Gaddo 1997, p. 152). In 1841, Nibby described a ‘Herm of Hercules wearing the lion skin’ in the second room of the Palazzina Borghese (p. 916, no. 9).
Hercules is portrayed with his head bent forward and to the left and wrapped in the leontè, the skin of the Nemean Lion killed by the hero. The figure’s left arm is held close to his side and bent, the left hand holding the paw of the lion skin to his chest. The left arm is slightly bent and holds the head of the beast by the mane. The leontè, the physical shape of which can be made out, conceals the transition from the pedestal to the figure. The facial features are those of a mature adult, with hollow cheeks and a deep horizontal line across the forehead. The deep-set eyes have curved eyelids, the iris is incised with fine furrows and the eyebrows give the hero a vexed expression. The beard is arranged in corkscrews that come down to the figure’s chest. The short, gnarled locks on the head are held by a tubular band called a strophion. The sculpture has a twin in the Hall of the Faun in the Capitoline Museum, which is similar in size and has the same hair and drapery and the detail of the lion’s mane pressed against the left side of the chest. Both are exemplars of an iconographic type that shows the demigod weary and no longer young, deriving from a well attested Hellenistic type (Vorster 1988, pp. 32–34). The type seems to have been rare in statuary and was more common in small bronzes, coins and trapezophori (Inserra 2008, p. 29, no. A 09). The herms seem datable to the Antonine period, based on the technique used to render the eye area with the incision of the iris and pupil, the curls of the beard, the hair and the lion’s mane, all finished with a drill. According to Polito, the sculptures came from the same original location and were probably displayed in a private space, with a decorative function.
Giulia Ciccarello
Bibliography
- A. Nibby, Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese, Roma 1832, p. 74.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1840, p. 13, n. 9.
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, p. 916, n. 9.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano del Palazzo della Villa Borghese, Roma 1854 (1873), I, p. 15, n. 9.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 27.
- W. Helbig, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom (3° Edizione), a cura di W. Amelung, II, Leipzig 1913, p. 241, n. 1545.
- G. Giusti, The Borghese Gallery and the Villa Umberto I in Rome, Città di Castello 1919, p. 35.
- Photographische Einzelaufnahmen antiker Sculpturen, X, 1 Munchen 1926, p. 8, n. 2730 (G. Lippold).
- A. De Rinaldis, La R. Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1935, p. 11.
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, (III Ed.) Roma 1954, p. 10.
- W. Helbig, H. Speier, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom, (4°Edizione), a cura di H. Speier, II, Tübingen 1966, p. 723, n. 1963 (von Steuben).
- 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. 101.
- O. Palagia, s.v. Herakles, in “Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae”, IV, 1988, p. 783.
- C. Vorster, Die Herme des fellbekleideten Herakles. Typenwandel und Typenwanderung in hellenistischer und römischer Zeit, in “Kölner Jahrbuch für Vor- und Frühgeschichte”, 21, 1988, pp. 7-34, in part. p. 33, n. 25.
- K. Kalveram, Die Antikensammlung des Kardinals Scipione Borghese, Worms am Rhein 1995, p. 268, n. 261.
- 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. 89, n. 11.
- P. Moreno, A. Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, pp. 171-172, n. 145.
- N. Inserra, Monopodium con erma di Ercole, in “Marmora Pompeiana nel Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Gli arredi scultorei delle case pompeiane”, Roma 2008.
- E. Polito, Erma di Eracle, in “Le sculture del Palazzo Nuovo. Musei Capitolini”, vol. 2, Roma 2018.
- Scheda di catalogo 12/01008382, P. Moreno 1979; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2020.
