Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

C 034
Bronze Herm of Polykleitos’ Doryphoros from Villa dei Papiri. Naples

Bronze
Herm
54 cm

From Herculaneum. Found in the small peristyle of the Villa of the Mysteries
Italy, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 4885

Preservation:
The herm is well preserved. The eyeballs have been filled with colored plaster in the modern era. The surface is lightly corroded in parts and the end of the chin and a piece of the right cheek have been undented.

Description:
The herm is cut vertically at the beginning of each shoulder. It extends downwards to what would be the area of the lower pectorals, yet ceases to depict anatomy below the clavicle. At the bottom of the herm is a one line Greek inscription, ?????????s????????????????????????? , Apollonios son of Archios, the Athenian made this. The head of the herm turns to the right and portrays a beardless male. The head has a flat cranium and a broad U-shaped face. The brow is high and bulges outward; the cheeks are flat and end in a solid round chin. The eyes are wide and the highest point of the upper lid and lowest point of the lower lid are at the center of the eye. The transition from lower lid to the cheek is awkwardly abrupt. The ridge of the nose is broad. The lips are full, open, and droop down at the corners. The hair, which leaves the ears and much of the brow uncovered, is short and rendered in locks whose strands are separated by parallel engraved grooves. The short locks are arranged in overlapping tiers which originate at the crown in a starfish pattern. Over the brow and the temples, the hair is symmetrically arranged in three partings. The largest of the partings is directly above the nose; the two other partings lie above the outer corners of the eye. At the nape the hair ends in long hook-shaped locks that lie individually on the neck.

Discussion:
The head is a copy of that of Polykleitos’ “Doryphoros”. It is generally agreed to be among the three best of at least thirty copies (the other two fine copies are a marble head from Herculaneum and the the head of the Minneapolis statue) and may even be the best copy since it, like the original, is in bronze. The hair of the head has received great attention from von Steuben who, analyzing it in detail, has traced the Polykleitan symmetry, balance, and measure in its movement, length, and arrangement. The hair is virtually identically repeated in the other good copies. The particular fineness in the rendering of the hair here is due to its material. Hartswick, who has discovered two consistent and different trends in the copying of a lock over the left eye, considers the treatment shown in this copy to be that of the original head. Whereas the hair of all three of finest copies is tightly related, the faces of the three copies, as Kreikenbom points out, tend to show more variation. The Minneapolis head, he considers to have a triangular face, the Herculaneum marble to be more oval, and the bronze to be more pointed. As Hallett noted (cf. cat.no.32) these differences between the heads are unintended and insignificant. Moreover, the lower face of the bronze was smashed inwards and has been pushed out again which means an evaluation of the shape of the head is meaningless. Zanker considered the head, particularly the curving ends of the hair, to resemble works of the late Hellenistic period. Kreikenbom points out that we cannot pinpoint the date of the herm. In the context, the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, both a late Hellenistic and early imperial date are possible. The name of the artist, who belongs to a family of similarly named artists, and the herm type are suitable either for a mid to late first century BCE date or for an early first century CE date. If one believes that the herm was erected in the late Hellenistic period, Zanker’s comparisons are tenable. If one believes that it was erected in the early imperial period, one could just as easily argue that the close relationship of the herm to its model reflects the purism of the early imperial classicism. Kreikenbom himself believes that the work is Augustan in date. Yet, if one believes that the head is made from a cast of the original (Borbein), then the evaluation of the stylistic rendering is immaterial.

Bibliography:
T. Lorenz, Polyklet (Wiesbaden 1972)
H. von Steuben, Der Kanon des Polyklet: Doryphoros und Amazone (Tubingen 1973) pp.11-27 pls.1-7 centerpiece for discussion of the head of Doryphoros
P. Zanker, Klassizistische Statuen (Mainz 1974) pp.7-9 pls.7.1, 31.2 considers it key for the reconstruction of the head, sees connection between rendering of hair locks and Hellenistic works, dates it to the second half of the first century BCE
, Le Collezioni del Museo Nazionale di Napoli I,2 (Rome 1989) p.136 no.195
, Polyklet: Der Bildhauer der griechischen Klassik (Mainz am Rhein 1990) articles on various aspects of Polykleitos
D. Kreikenbom, Bildwerke nach Polyklet (Berlin 1990) pp.81-85, 174, no.III.42 reflects on the suggestions of others, concludes that the head closely follows the original and probably dates to the Augustan period
K. Hartswick, "Head Types of the Doryphoros" in Polykleitos, the Doryphoros, and Tradition (Wisconsin 1995) pp.161-176 fig.9.1 notes the differences in head types
W. Moon (ed.), Polykleitos, the Doryphoros, and Tradition (Wisconsin 1995) articles on various aspects of the Doryphoros