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| 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.
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| Torso of Apollo Lykeios AD 130-160 Roman marble sculpture Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Torso of Dionysus 1st-2nd century AD Roman marble sculpture Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Torso of Aphrodite 2nd century BC Greek marble sculpture Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Torso of Aphrodite 2nd century BC Roman marble sculpture British Museum |
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| Torso of Artemis 1st century BC Roman marble sculpture British Museum |
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| Torso of Emperor Hadrian AD 130-140 Roman marble sculpture British Museum |
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| Torso of a youth 1st century AD Roman marble sculpture Prado |
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| Torso of a youth AD 150 Roman marble sculpture Prado |
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| Torso of Artemis AD 175-200 Roman marble sculpture Prado |
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| Torso of Aphrodite AD 50-75 Roman marble sculpture Prado |
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| Torso with cloak 1st 2nd century AD Roman marble sculpture Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Torso of Eros 1st-2nd century AD Roman marble sculpture Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Torso of Hercules 1st century BC - 1st century AD Roman marble sculpture British Museum |