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View: 3/4 proper left profile
Head of Herakles, after Lysippos
Greek
Late Hellenistic Period
1st century B.C.
Medium/Technique
Marble
Dimensions
Height: 28 cm (11 in.)
Credit Line
Helen and Alice Colburn Fund
Accession Number1976.6
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 104A; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 109 (additional published references).
DescriptionThe left side of the nose was broken away, and, aside from the diagonal break at the neck and raised left shoulder, the head is in excellent condition. The surfaces have suffered some weathering or similar, natural abrasion. The marble has a yellow patina, with brown stains (from soil or metal?) on the face and the left side of the hair, neck, and beard.
This head is a free, Hellenistic creation, of considerable quality in terms of Greek marble sculpture after bronze prototypes, based on the Weary Herakles fashioned about 320 B.C. for the agora-complex at Sikyon or the gymnasium and baths at Salamis on Cyprus, seemingly work of the Hadrianic period, gives an excellent idea of how a more complex version of this particular figure in marble would have appeared.
Scientific Analysis:
Marble has been scientifically tested with X-Ray Diffraction and X-Ray Florescence and determined to be Calcitic.
Harvard Lab No. HI096: Isotope ratios - delta13C +1.82 / delta18O -2.67, Attribution - Paros 2, Prokonnesos, Thasos-Cape Phaneri& Thasos-Aliki, Usak, Ephesos 2, Heracleia, Mylasa, Naxos-Melanes; Justification - Coarse-grained marble.
This head is a free, Hellenistic creation, of considerable quality in terms of Greek marble sculpture after bronze prototypes, based on the Weary Herakles fashioned about 320 B.C. for the agora-complex at Sikyon or the gymnasium and baths at Salamis on Cyprus, seemingly work of the Hadrianic period, gives an excellent idea of how a more complex version of this particular figure in marble would have appeared.
Scientific Analysis:
Marble has been scientifically tested with X-Ray Diffraction and X-Ray Florescence and determined to be Calcitic.
Harvard Lab No. HI096: Isotope ratios - delta13C +1.82 / delta18O -2.67, Attribution - Paros 2, Prokonnesos, Thasos-Cape Phaneri& Thasos-Aliki, Usak, Ephesos 2, Heracleia, Mylasa, Naxos-Melanes; Justification - Coarse-grained marble.
ProvenanceSaid to come from a private collection, Bavaria. By about 1973, Antiken Heinz Herzer, Munich; 1976, sold by Antiken Heinz Herzer to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 14, 1976)