Farnese Hermes, British Museum, London England
Roman, 1st century AD From Italy
Together with a statue of Apollo,this sculpture once framed the central doorway of the gallery in the PalazzoFarnese in Rome. The Farnese family assembled one of the most importantRenaissance collections of antiquities in the city. Cardinal AlessandroFarnese, later Pope under the name of Paul III, commissioned the family'smagnificent palace. Begun by the architect Antonio di Sangallo (about1455-1534) and finally completed by Michelangelo (1475-1564), it housed themost splendid antiquities owned by the family and became one of the primedestinations for visitors to Rome. Its centrepiece was a great gallery over thearcades of the back part of the palace, completed in 1589. The gallerycontained fine sculptures integrated with wall and ceiling frescoes, added byAnnibale Carracci (1560-1609) after 1597, into a carefully thought-outiconographic program.
This statue of Hermes, identified byhis winged sandals and the herald's staff in his left hand, is a Roman copy ofa famous type created in the school of the Greek sculptor Praxiteles in thefourth century BC. Another Roman copy after the same type was in the Vatican,where it was known as the 'Belvedere Antinous'.
Farnese Hermes, British Museum, London England
Roman, 1st century AD From Italy
Together with a statue of Apollo,this sculpture once framed the central doorway of the gallery in the PalazzoFarnese in Rome. The Farnese family assembled one of the most importantRenaissance collections of antiquities in the city. Cardinal AlessandroFarnese, later Pope under the name of Paul III, commissioned the family'smagnificent palace. Begun by the architect Antonio di Sangallo (about1455-1534) and finally completed by Michelangelo (1475-1564), it housed themost splendid antiquities owned by the family and became one of the primedestinations for visitors to Rome. Its centrepiece was a great gallery over thearcades of the back part of the palace, completed in 1589. The gallerycontained fine sculptures integrated with wall and ceiling frescoes, added byAnnibale Carracci (1560-1609) after 1597, into a carefully thought-outiconographic program.
This statue of Hermes, identified byhis winged sandals and the herald's staff in his left hand, is a Roman copy ofa famous type created in the school of the Greek sculptor Praxiteles in thefourth century BC. Another Roman copy after the same type was in the Vatican,where it was known as the 'Belvedere Antinous'.