Roman seated Mercury, 1st century AD
Bronze and silver
Height: 10.8cm
11608
Further images
The exceptionally well-modelled nude god is sitting in a relaxed pose with his right arm lightly resting on his bent right leg, his other leg stretched slightly outwards and down,...
The exceptionally well-modelled nude god is sitting in a relaxed pose with his right arm lightly resting on his bent right leg, his other leg stretched slightly outwards and down, whilst his left hand supports and steadies him. His head is turned to the left, his eyes of inlaid silver are gazing upwards, and his close-cropped hair is in tight curls. His youthful body is elegantly muscular with a pronounced iliac crest; a narrow crease of flesh above his navel.
The surface has a lustrous, deep green patina. The very tips of the outer three fingers on the left hand are chipped.
A very similar bronze, possibly even from the same workshop, found in Fleurs, France (not far from the find-spot of the present example), is discussed by S. Reinach and published in Master Bronzes from the Classical World, where it is called a ‘Seated Mercury’, and it is noted that the type resembles the seated Hercules shown in P. Lehmann, Statues on Coins (New York, 1946), 40ff. Looking at other examples, it has been suggested that they may have been wrestlers and belonged to a group of athletes.
The surface has a lustrous, deep green patina. The very tips of the outer three fingers on the left hand are chipped.
A very similar bronze, possibly even from the same workshop, found in Fleurs, France (not far from the find-spot of the present example), is discussed by S. Reinach and published in Master Bronzes from the Classical World, where it is called a ‘Seated Mercury’, and it is noted that the type resembles the seated Hercules shown in P. Lehmann, Statues on Coins (New York, 1946), 40ff. Looking at other examples, it has been suggested that they may have been wrestlers and belonged to a group of athletes.
Provenance
Discovered in the 1880s at Corné, Marne et Loire, France
Rogan collection, France
Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, USA
Private collection, Wiltshire, UK; acquired May 2010
Literature
For a very close example, found at Feurs, France, and identified as Mercury, compare David Gordon Mitten and Suzannah F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World (Mainz am Rhine, 1968), no.248. For an example identified as an athlete, perhaps a wrestler, compare Dorothy Kent Hill, Catalogue of Classical Bronze Sculpture in the Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, 1949), no.143
Publications
Jerome Eisenberg, Royal-Athena Galleries, Art of the Ancient World, no.76 (New York, 2001), no.88
