For many years this winged head was thought to be an original Greek bronze, but it is now known to be a Roman copy. He seems to have been a subject particularly popular in the western Mediterranean, as a number of other heads and figures of Hypnos have been found in Spain, France and Italy.
Hypnos is usually shown as a running young man with wings on his head and long, tied-up hair. In this example, all that survives is the head
London, British Museum Bronzes 627
Donation by Simples and Garret of Pembroke College in 1907-8
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 252 (n.7)
Picard: Archéologie Grècque; Sculpture III (1948), figs.346-8
Walters: British Museum Bronzes (1899), 34, no.267
Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmäler Griechischer und Römischer Skulptur, 235
Mattusch: Classical Bronzes, 155
Lawrence: Classical Sculpture (1928), 253
Found near Perugia in Italy in 1868
