Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

C 001
Head of Warrior in "Munich-Barracco" Type. Munich

Marble
Head
32.5 cm

The head was bought in Rome and thus, presumably, comes from Italy.
Germany, Munich, Glyptothek, 172
c. 490 - 470 BC

Preservation:
The head was restored by Thorvaldsen. These restorations are preserved in the cast but have been removed from the head in Munich. The restorations include the nose, the beard on the chin, the lower part of both ears, most of the helmet, the neck plug, the nape of the neck, and the herm shaft at the back of the neck.

Description:
The head depicts a bearded man wearing a helmet. The helmet extends down over the short brow. The face has a broad rectangular shape, the lower part of which is defined by the beard. The eyebrows are arched and continue downwards into the nose. The oval eyes are shaped by lids which appear to be mirror reflections of each other. The lids are not heavy and the eyeballs are convex; the eyes thus appear wide open. The mouth is broad and the lips, parted by a deep groove, appear open. The face is distinctly not symmetrical. The nose is not in the center of the face; the right side of the face is wider. The hair appears on the sides of the head and out from below the helmet on the brow directly above the center of the eyes. It is rendered in small beads and does not cover the ears. The beard, which begins below the cheek bones, is rendered as a raised area on the lower portion of the cheek. In the raised area short downward directed locks are engraved. The moustache has an almost half-circle shape which falls over the area of the beard.

Discussion:
The broadness of the throat and the red surface of the preserved right edge of the neck suggest that this head was originally on a herm. The assymetry of the face, however, indicates that the original model was in an active pose and, thus, probably belonged to a statue. There are two other copies of this head (Museo Barracco 79 and Villa Albani 30). The snail-like curls of the hair and the stylized beard recall the statues from the West Pediment of the Temple at Aigina as well as the head of Harmodios. This similarity suggests that the original work, on which this head, is based dated in the first quarter of the fifth century BC. The date and subject of the original statue, which the Munich head copies, have provoked scholarly attention. Since it stylistically resembles the heads of the statues from the West Pediment of Aigina and the head of Harmodios from the Tyrannicide group, many (following Pandermalis) date the original model to the early 470s BC. Some scholars, who follow this dating, believe that the original statue represented a hero (Albani Kat); others (Pandermalis) leave the precise subject (mortal or divinity) open. Gauer suggests the head to be a posthumous depiction of Miltiades erected by his son Kimon. Another school of thought considers the head to be a Roman creation. Hafner has suggested that the head represents a Roman hero such as Horatius Cocles. A final possibility to be considered (Vierneisel-Schlorb) is that the original statue was an early imperial creation designed to evoke a Greek hero such as Miltiades. Given the head’s resemblance to securely dated pieces of the early fifth century and Roman sculptural practices, which are known to have created pieces in this early style, it seems perhaps safer to discard the possibility that the head type was a Roman creation. The original statue has also been associated (Ekstein) with group of statues at Olympia which are dedicated by and for a man named Phormis. The monument and the man are described by Pausianas (5.27,1-2). The date of the monument, gathered from the facts of Phormis' life, lies between 480 and 460 BC and one of the sculptures is signed by an artist, Simon from Aigina. Apart from the passage in Pausanias, however, neither Phormis nor Simon are otherwise known. According to Vierneisel-Schlorb, dedications in pan-Hellenic sanctuaries are not usually copied. Moreover, since monument was copied on more than one occasion in the Roman period, one should expect a more important man and more important artist. PS. W. Gauer has argues the head represents Themistokles, based on a comparison with the Themistokles herm from Ostia (see H 48).

Bibliography:
B. Vierneisel-Schlörb, Katalog der Skulpturen Band II: Klassische Skulpturen des 5 und 4 Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Munich 1979) pp.1-5 no.1 figs.1-4
P.C. Bol (ed), Forschungen zur Villa Albani: Katalog der antiken Bildwerke II (Berlin 1990) pp.62-63 no.166 inv.no.30
W. Gauer, "Zweimal Themistokles," MüJb 47 (1996) 9 - 20 Identifies the head as Themistokles