Object details
Object number
S27w54
Creator(s)
Greco-Roman
Title
Greek Scholar or Man of Affairs or Intellect
Date
1st century BCE - 2nd century CE
Medium
Pentelic marble
Dimensions
52 x 32.4 x 24.8 cm (20 1/2 x 12 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.)
Provenance
Found near the basilica of San Saba on the Aventine Hill, Rome in 1901.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner for 10,000 lire from an unknown art dealer on 23 November 1901, through the art historian and archaeologist Richard Norton (1872-1918), Rome.
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Bibliography
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 23. (as Greek bust)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 239. (Graeco-Roman, likely Greek, in the Hellenistic style)
V. Poulsen. "Poet or General, an Iconographical Puzzle." The Burlington Magazine (1950), pp. 194-97, nos. 12, 15. (Roman, after a Greek portrait of a poet or general of the 5th century BCE, with stylistic details of the 4th century BCE)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III. Greek and Roman Portraits 470-500 BCE (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), no. 7. (Roman, after a Greek original of about 325-300 BCE, perhaps a portrait of Metrodorus of Lampsacus, 330-277 BCE)
G.M.A. Richter. The Portraits of the Greeks I (London, 1965) p. 96, nos. 388-89. (Roman, after a Greek original of the 5th century, a portrait of Miltiades)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 34. (Graeco-Roman, copy of a Greek work of about 320-280 BCE, perhaps a portrait of Epicurus or Metrodorus)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III. "Classical Art" in James Thomas Herbert Baily (ed.). The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors 128 "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum" (London, 1978), p. 48, no. 8.
Gallery
Long Gallery
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