Doryphoros Herm from the Villa of the Papyri
- Title:
- Doryphoros Herm from the Villa of the Papyri
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- (rectangular stamp of cast maker on back, illegible) (reproduction)
Apollonios, son of Archias, of Athens (Roman copy)
Polykleitos (Greek original) (original)
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- 1895
ca. mid 1st c. BCE to 79 CE (Roman copy)
ca. 440 BCE (Polykleitan original)
- Site:
- Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum, Italy (discovery site
discovered 1753) (original) - Location:
- Klarman Hall Atrium, Cornell University
previously, Goldwin Smith Hall (Room 128)
Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum, Italy (discovery site
discovered 1753) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0786
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 107
107 (written in pencil inside)
726 - File Name:
- CCC_0786.tif
- Culture:
- Roman, after Greek
- Style/Period:
- Roman late Republican or Imperial, after Greek Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
bronze sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Athletics
Herculaneum (Extinct city) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 54.5 x 40 x 27.5 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a well-preserved cast of a bronze herm of Polykleitos' Doryphoros found in 1753 in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. The athlete turns his head slightly to his right and gazes ahead with almond-shaped eyes. His full lips are very slightly parted and the long bridge of his nose is squared. The herm base begins at the collarbone. The cast has been painted black to appear as patinated bronze. There is a Greek inscription at the lower edge of the base identifying Apollonios the Athenian, son of Archias, as the maker of the work. An announcement appeared in the Cornell Daily Sun on November 5, 1895 (vol. XVI, no. 35) regarding the piece: "A facsimile of the bronze copy of the Doryphoros of Polykleitos, the celebrated fifth century sculptor of Argos, has been secured for the Museum of Classical Archaeology by the co-operation of the Art Institute of Chicago. It bears in Greek letters the signature of the copyist Apollonios, son of Archias. The piece has been placed in the first alcove of the museum, near the cast of the marble copy of the same statue which was found at Pompeii and which is now in the National Museum at Naples." From January until July 2015, this object was exhibited in the Bartels Gallery, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, as part of an exhibition titled "Cast and Present: Replicating Antiquity in the Museum and the Academy."
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 4885 - Bibliography:
- Carol C. Mattusch, The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005), 276-282
- Related Work:
- See ID nos. 163 and 163a for cast of the Doryphoros statue.
- Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Naples, National Archaeological Museum (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.