Roman
Herm of Hermes, mid 1st century BCE - early 1st century CE
Pentelic marble, 40.5 x 29.2 x 24.8 cm (15 15/16 x 11 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.)
This marble bust, called a Herm, presents a sculpted male head on top of a plain, round lower chest section. His hair is carved in intricate patterns of individual curls and he wears a headband across his forehead. His curls lie on top of the head and symmetrically down the sides of the face and around the back of the head. The same intricate and symmetrical curls form the long beard that reaches all the way down to what would be the tip of the chest. The eyes, nose, and mouth on the bust are deeply carved. The lips, pupils and lining of the eyes are a faded red color while the rest of the statue is a light yellow-brown color. The whole bust is sat atop a squat round pedestal with a red and white marbled pattern.
Long Gallery
Commentary
This bust of Hermes is in the form of a herm—a statue composed of a head placed on a life-sized, quadrangular pillar. Herms, which derive from Hermes, the god of travelers, roads, and borders, were used in Greece as markers for boundaries and roads.
Isabella’s herm is a Roman creation in an archaistic style that references a sculpture from the 5th century BCE. The Romans were fond of using herms as garden ornaments, as did Isabella, who displayed other herms in her collection in the Courtyard. However, this herm sits in the Long Gallery—a marker along the narrow path through the space.