Re-Carved Colossal Head of Hercules

Description This large marble head, possibly from an over-life-sized sculpture of Hercules, was excavated near the Florence baptistery and adapted and partly recarved to fit a medieval sculpture. Differences in the drill marks on the beard and the hair (those in the hair are finer and deeper than those in the beard) indicate that the head was probably modified in the Middle Ages. Many of the sculpted figures that once adorned the facade of the Duomo in Florence were completed with adaptations of ancient heads. The nose and left ear of this head are modern.

Conservation

Old fills around the restored nose and proper right ear were toned using Golden Fluid Acrylic Colors. No attempt was made to hide the restorations.

Date	Description	Narrative
6/23/1971	Treatment	cleaned
5/16/2016	Treatment	Prepared for exhibition.

Exhibitions

• Early Christian and Byzantine Art. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1947.
• Waste Not: The Art of Medieval Recycling. 2016.

Provenance Arthur Sambon, Paris [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Joseph Brummer, Paris and New York [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Brummer Sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, June 9, 1949, Pt. III, no. 558; Walters Art Museum, June 9, 1949, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase, 1949