ClassificationsGreek and Roman Art
Statue of Mercury
AAT Object Form/Functionstatues
CultureRoman
PeriodImperial
Date1st-2nd Century CE
Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art
Dimensions55 x 22 x 14 1/2 in. (139.7 x 55.9 x 36.8 cm)
Object number1999.011.005
Label TextThis lifesize statue of a male youth probably depicts the travelling god, Mercury. He stands with his weight on his right leg and his left slightly extended, leaning against a support in the form of a tree trunk. He wears a chlamys (cloak) pinned at the right shoulder with a circular fibula and draped across his torso and thighs, covering his left arm entirely but leaving the right bare. He grips the fabric of the cloak with his left hand. The god may have held a caduceus (herald’s staff) in his right hand, which is missing from the wrist. The statue likely decorated a gymnasium, where the god’s youth and his association with journeys and transformation made him an appropriate patron deity of athletic training and discipline.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, 2000 - May 2004
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - August 26, 2013
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 25, 2013 - Present
Published ReferencesMCCM Newsletter, March - May 2000.
ProvenanceSaid to be ex coll. Tempelberg Foundation, Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Purchased by MCCM from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York.
Status
On viewCollections
- Greek and Roman Art
late 1st-2nd Century CE
1st-2nd Century CE
1st-2nd Century CE
ca. 470-450 BCE
1st Century BCE-1st Century CE
4th Century BCE
1st Century BCE
ca. 14 - 37 CE
664-525 BCE
2nd Century CE
