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Museum of Classical Archaeology Databases

Farnese Hermes

This statue of Hermes, the Greek messenger god, identified by his winged sandals and staff (caduceus) in his left hand, is a copy — one of several — of the original made by the school of Praxiteles

Number: 
255
Material: 
Marble
Location of Original: 

London, British Museum 1599

Size: 
2.01m
Accession: 

Purchased from Brucciani in 1884

References: 

Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 275 (n.2), pl. 96.4
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 78, no.369
Smith: Catalogue of British Museum Sculpture III (1904), 37, pl. IV
Rizzo: Prassitele, 75, pl. CXII

Date: 
First century CE. Original: c.325 BCE
Sculptor: 
Original: school of Praxiteles
Provenance: 

It is thought to have been found in central Italy and was owned in the sixteenth century by the powerful and wealthy Farnese family, whose collection of antiquities was one of the finest in Renaissance Rome. It was later in the possession of the king of Naples, who sold it to the British Museum in 1864

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