/internal/media/dispatcher/1016168/resize%25253Aformat%25253DthumbnailHerm-bust of MenanderLate 1st century B.C. or early 1st century A.D.Height: 51.5cm ( 20 1/4 in.); length (of face): 19.6 cm (7 11/16 in.)Marble (from Mt. Pentelikon near Athens)Catharine Page Perkins Fund97.2881The very tip of the nose is missing. The surface on the right side of the face and neck is corroded and worn. The bust takes the form of a herm, with slots for wooden inserts, on which garlands could be hung. The neck is inclined toward the left shoulder, and the head is turned slightly to the subject's right. The man portrayed is in the prime of life.
Menander was the leading writer of "New Comedy" whose dramas concerned lively, though highly unusual, domestic crises. His plots, known from Latin adaptations by Plautus and Terence, involve scheming slaves and kidnapped daughters. The model for this portrait, probably set up in the Theater of Dionysus at Athens, couples visionary intelligence and a lean, athletic grandeur in a way that is paralleled in portraits of Alexander the Great by Lysippus.
Scientific Analysis:
Harvard Lab No. HI226: Isotope ratios - delta13C +2.48 / delta18O -4.64, Attribution - Pentelikon, Justification - Fine grained marble, Petrographic Analysis - maximum grain size (1.1, 1.2 mm), accessory minerals (dolomite, quartz), Mg present.Sculpture51.500000000019.600000000015112401