Mercury

Standing with the weight on the left leg and the right foot to the rear, Mercury holds a purse in his outstretched right hand. The left hand, which is close to the body, held a caduceus. Drapery, probably a chlamys, is thrown over the left shoulder falling to back and front, covering the left arm, and forming a loop held by a brooch on the shoulder. The body is of Polykleitan pose and style. The parts of the abdomen are divided by grooves. There are wings on the head, but none on the feet. The figure is attached to a colorful fluorite base (perhaps myrrhine or flospar) that appears to be ancient and may be original to the statuette. According to the 1905 sales catalogue of the Guilhou collection, this statuette was excavated by Gennaro Matrone at the site later known as Fondo Bottaro. Earrings in the Walters collection, 57.1914, are said in the same sale to have been found in the same excavation as the statuette.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Guilhou collection, France, by 1905, [mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Collection de M. Guilhou: Objects Antiques, Hotel Drouot, 16-18 March 1905, p. 45, no. 302, illust. [said to be from Boscoreale, Matrone excavations at Fondo Bottaro]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1905, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.