Roman Head of Hero Herakles

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Head of Herakles, Italy, circa 1st century AD, marble, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of David T. Owsley in memory of Professor Alan R. Bromberg, via the Alvin and Lucy Owsley Foundation, Cecil and Ida Green Acquisition Fund, and Wendover Fund. Composed and restored by Lambert Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759). It is similar to two 1st-century Roman works residing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Vatican Museums, said to be based on Hellenistic Greek work from mid-2nd century AD. The Dallas Museum of Art acquired this marble head of Herakles, the Greek hero known as Hercules by the Romans, at a Sotheby's auction in New York in June 2015, showcasing three different artistic hands. It is a pastiche of two antiquities rendered by master sculptor Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and offers an interesting look at Greek religion, Roman military commemoration, and the taste and flourishes of 18th-century artistry. Using fragments of Roman sculpture together to create a new work was a common practice in the 1700s. The head was excavated sometime between 1723 and 1732 in Rome by Cardinal Melchior de Polignac and traded for restoration work in his collection. You can see the line at the neck where the head was attached to this bust. "This powerful bust is as interesting for its later history in 18th-century France as it is for its Greco-Roman origins," added Anne R. Bromberg, the DMA's Cecil and Ida Green Curator of Ancient and Asian Art. "The head is a striking example of Roman realism in art: the mature, forceful face, the curly mustache, and rich hair suggest an actual Roman man more than epic hero Herakles, while the rich drapery on the shoulders might well be the dress of a Roman emperor or nobleman." Information provided was adapted from press releases for this piece's acquisition by the museum, Anne Bromberg, DMA.