Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

C 142
Herm of Euripides in the "Farnese" type. Mantua

Portrait herm of the Athenian tragedian Euripides (ca. 485/80- 407/6 BC). Possibly based on a bronze statue of Euripides set up ca. 330 BC in the theatre of Dionysos at Athens.

Marble
Herm
50 cm, head 31 cm

Probably from Italy. The D’Este and Gonzaga collections in Mantua were put together during the sixteenth century. In Vespasiano Gonzaga’s ideal town Sabionneta, there was a long “Galleria degli Antichi” to which this herm might have belonged. In 1707 all the Mantovan and Gonzaga dynasties property passed to the Austrian Kingdom. When the French entered Mantua in 1797, they took the herm to Paris. It was returned in 1815 when Mantua was given back to the Austrians.
Italy, Mantua, Palazzo Ducale
Roman version of an original possibly created ca. 330 BC

Preservation:
The tip of the nose has been restored in plaster. Some of the ends of locks of hair have broken. The surface on the left side of the cheek is slightly abraded.

Description:
The portrait head and herm bust are made from one block of marble. The head depicts a long straggly haired and bearded old man who looks straight forward. The bust wears no clothing and features a defined collar bone and indentation at the base of the neck. The portrait head’s brow is tall and convex. It features two short horizontal creases. Below the lower crease the brow bulges outwards; on this bulge there are vertical indentations, lines of contraction, over the nose. The eyebrows are thin and drooping. The eyes are small, deep-set, and have defined eyelids. The inner corners of the hollows below the eyes are delineated. The cheeks sink inwards or dimple below the jutting cheekbones and the naso-labial folds are heavy. The fine nose is indented at its root but then hooks outward. The mouth is broad from side to side. The upper lip is covered by the moustache and the lower lip is thin. The beard extends upward to just below the lower lip. The jaw line is square and covered by a beard that begins below the sideburns. The beard is made of two to three layers of short curling locks; the individual strands of the locks are denoted by shallow grooves. The hair on the head is rendered similarly. It falls in long straggly locks that fall naturally from the crown of the head. The locks are sparse and less voluminous over the balding pate; they leave much bare skin visible. The locks at the side of the head are heavier; they cover the ears. The locks at the back of the head are long and reach the shoulders. Some of these locks especially those at the back right side are expertly drilled away from each other and from the neck. Some are connected to each other by very small "bridges" of marble.

Discussion:
The herm in Mantua represents the Athenian tragedian Euripides (b. 485/480 BC, d. 407/406 BC). The portrait head of an old man with long straggly hair follows a type, called the "Farnese Euripides" type, that is known in about thirty copies. The "Farnese Euripides" type is securely identified as Euripides. The Farnese herm, now in Naples (cf. cat. no. C 143), bears an ancient inscription in Greek that reads Euripides; a relief now in Istanbul portrays a seated figure with a version of the portrait that is labelled Euripides and crowned by Skene (the "Stage"); at least two double herms feature the portrait in conjunction with a portrait of Sophocles, another fifth century Athenian tragedian. The Farnese type is generally dated for stylistic reasons to the second half of the fourth century. The modelling of the forehead and brow are cited by Zanker as indications of that date. Voutiras compares the portrait type to the portrait of Aristotle made shortly after Aristotle’s death in 322 BC. The portrait type has, therefore, been associated with Lycurgus’ erection of statues for Athen’s three great tragedians, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus in the Theater of Dionysus at Athens (see cat. no. C 141and Pseudo-Plutarch Vita X orat. 841 F). The probable date of the statues lies between 338 and 326 BC when Lycurgus was in charge of public finances in Athens. Since the seated figure of Euripides on the Istanbul relief features a mantle pulled up over the back and falling in front of the left shoulder and several of the preserved Roman versions of the head type also feature a mantle draped over the left shoulder, P. Zanker suggests that the Istanbul relief reproduces the original statue. The manner of dress and the pose of the figure in that relief and, as Zanker would have it, of the original statue are used on grave stele for old and venerable men. In his opinion, in the Lycurgan monument Euripides would have been shown as the eldest and most honoured of the three poets since by the end of the fourth century he was considered the greatest of the three. L. Giuliani, before Zanker, had already noted that the Euripides portrait showed a more emphatic contemplative appearance that corresponded to his fame as the wisest poet. The herm of Euripides in Mantua is considered to be one of the two finest examples of the portrait type. The rendering of the hair suggests a date in the second century AD. J. Lenaghan

Bibliography:
A. Levi, Sculture greche e romane del Palazzo ducale di Mantova (Rome 1931) 38-39, no. 56, pl. 41 brief catalogue entry with introductory history of the collection
G.M.A. Richter, Portraits of the Greeks I (London 1965) 135, no. 19, 138-139 catalogue entry and discussion of Euripides’ Farnese type
L. Giuliani, Bildnis und Botschaft. Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Bildniskunst der römischen Republik (Frankfurt a. M. 1986) 138-139 brief discussion and interpretation of differences among Lycurgan portraits of three poets
K. Fittschen, Griechische Porträts (Darmstadt 1988) pls. 74.1 and 75 photographs from three sides
P.C. Bol (ed), Forschungen zur Villa Albani: Katalog der antiken Bildwerke II (Berlin 1990) 191-192 comments by E. Voutiras on dates of original model
P. Zanker, The Mask of Socrates (Berkeley 1995) 52-57, especially n. 20 discussion and interpretation of original model, notes fine quality of herm in Mantua.