Relief Fragment Depicting Hermanubis

This relief fragment depicts Hermanubis, a deity that combined the elements of Egyptian Anubis (including the head of a jackal) with those of Graeco-Roman Hermes/Mercury. Although the jackal head is almost completely obliterated, traces of a long, pointed ear are visible on the left side of the stone, while the snout is partially preserved below the break. His garment is secured with a circular fibula over his left shoulder, leaving his right arm and part of his chest exposed. In his proper right hand, he grips the handle of an object, possibly a sistrum based on other Roman-period depictions of the god. He may have held a caduceus or a palm frond in his now-missing left arm.

The piece is cut off and worked rough at the right side and in a diagonal line at the top. There are two dowel holes in the top, and one in the side. There is clamp cutting at the top, and mortar in the drapery.

Provenance

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

Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome, by 1894, [mode of acquisition unknown] [marble no. 62]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.