Friday, March 17, 2017

Authentic Torso

Torso of Hercules seated on a rock
1st-2nd century AD
Roman marble sculpture
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"When Lord Tavistock (father of the present Duke of Bedford) was at Rome, he commissioned Gavin Hamilton to collect statues or busts of merit and curiosity, for his intended gallery. Mr. Hamilton soon afterwards discovered a Venus of such exquisite proportions and finishing as to rival the far-famed statue De Medici  but the head was wanting. Jenkins had procured from the cellars of the Barberini palace, in which an infinite number of fragments had been deposited, a most beautiful head of a Pudicitia. As the perfecting a statue was ever his object, he offered Mr. Hamilton a hundred sequins for his headless statue, knowing how easily he could render it complete; and added that 'He did not understand the taste of English virtuosi, who had no value for statues without heads; and that Lord Tavistock would not give him a guinea for the finest torso ever discovered.' The crafty statue-dealer prevailed, and by the skill of Cavaceppi, having removed the veil from the Pudicitia, a perfect Venus arose, and her charms were first presented to Mr. Weddell, a determined collector."

 from a memoir dated 1812, printed in Why Fakes Matter: Essays on Problems of Authenticity edited by Mark Jones (British Museum Press, 1992)

Several of the headless statue-fragments gathered here were originally displayed in their current museum-homes with heads (not their own) attached. The passage quoted above explains why, and it also explains why curators have subsequently instructed conservators to remove such heads. As the years pass it becomes increasingly difficult to understand the motives of the ancestors who felt such creative pride in gluing together unrelated bits of ancient sculpture. People of the present age prefer to see their ancient statues stripped of contrivances and embellishments, presented as the honest wrecks they are  but that attitude will undoubtedly also be discarded or become irrelevant in some future revolution of taste.

Torso of Apollo Lykeios
AD 130-160
Roman marble sculpture
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Torso of Dionysus
1st-2nd century AD
Roman marble sculpture
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Torso of Aphrodite
2nd century BC
Greek marble sculpture
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Torso of Aphrodite
2nd century BC
Roman marble sculpture
British Museum

Torso of Artemis
1st century BC
Roman marble sculpture
British Museum

Torso of Emperor Hadrian
AD 130-140
Roman marble sculpture
British Museum

Torso of a youth
1st century AD
Roman marble sculpture
Prado



Torso of a youth
AD 150
Roman marble sculpture
Prado

Torso of Artemis
AD 175-200
Roman marble sculpture
Prado

Torso of Aphrodite
AD 50-75
Roman marble sculpture
Prado

Torso with cloak
1st 2nd century AD
Roman marble sculpture
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Torso of Eros
1st-2nd century AD
Roman marble sculpture
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Torso of Hercules
1st century BC - 1st century AD
Roman marble sculpture
British Museum