Dublin Core
Title
Cast no.25
Abstract
One of two archaizing reliefs from Greece – part of the "Guilford Puteal."
Pentelic marble.
1st century BCE.
London British Museum.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 998 (both).
Relief of Hermes
H 18 ¾ in., W 12 in.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 hallway
Messenger to the gods, Hermes, or Mercury, ensured the safety of travelers and favored merchants as well as thieves. In this relief, Hermes is portrayed as a heavily muscled, nude male, standing in profile. He wears winged sandals as well as a shawl around his waist, but he does not carry a caduceus.These two reliefs formed part of the decoration of a circular altar produced during the reign of Augustus (31 BCE - 14 CE), one of several such altars commissioned to commemorate his military victory over Marc Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE. The reliefs were acquired in Corinth during the nineteenth century by a gentleman named Notarà. He used the reliefs as a puteal or wellhead, which he installed in his garden. There it was regularly seen by foreign visitors, including the Englishman Edward Dodwell in 1805. He commissioned an Italian named Simone Pomardi to sketch the puteal. Then a cast was made of it and sent to Athens, where another drawing was produced in 1811 by Baron von Stackelberg. Owing to the growing popularity of the "Corinth Puteal," Notarà took it to Zante (Zakynthos), an island noted for art dealing, where he sold it to Frederick North, the fifth Earl of Guilford, who took it to England. There the Corinth Puteal came to be called the Guilford Puteal. After North died in 1827, the puteal came into the possession of Thomas Wentworth Beaumont, who kept it at his home, Brenton Hall, near Leeds in northern England. After his death in 1848, the puteal disappeared. Beaumont’s house was sold and later demolished, and it was thought for many years that the Guilford Puteal had been destroyed. But at some point it and another ancient altar were sold to the West Riding County Council, which later established the Leeds College of Education, and the two altars were placed in a garden on campus, where they were rediscovered in 1992 by Susan Walker, who was then a curator at the British Museum. The Guilford Puteal was acquired in 2002 by the British Museum for approximately £300,000 ($544,032.38). Its identification and date were secured by the recent discovery of another altar just like it at Nikopolis, close to Actium, where Augustus (then known as Octavian) had defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE. Around the altar ten mythological figures are carved in low relief, as if in two converging processions. Apollo leads the first procession. He plays his lyre and is followed closely by his sister Artemis, bow in hand and stag at her side, and then by their mother Leto. Then comes Hermes escorting three women with bowed heads, perhaps nymphs or the Graces. The other procession is led by Athena, who wears an elaborate breastplate and carries a helmet and a weapon. Behind her, Herakles leads another woman, probably Hera or Aphrodite.
Pentelic marble.
1st century BCE.
London British Museum.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 998 (both).
Relief of Hermes
H 18 ¾ in., W 12 in.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 hallway
Messenger to the gods, Hermes, or Mercury, ensured the safety of travelers and favored merchants as well as thieves. In this relief, Hermes is portrayed as a heavily muscled, nude male, standing in profile. He wears winged sandals as well as a shawl around his waist, but he does not carry a caduceus.These two reliefs formed part of the decoration of a circular altar produced during the reign of Augustus (31 BCE - 14 CE), one of several such altars commissioned to commemorate his military victory over Marc Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE. The reliefs were acquired in Corinth during the nineteenth century by a gentleman named Notarà. He used the reliefs as a puteal or wellhead, which he installed in his garden. There it was regularly seen by foreign visitors, including the Englishman Edward Dodwell in 1805. He commissioned an Italian named Simone Pomardi to sketch the puteal. Then a cast was made of it and sent to Athens, where another drawing was produced in 1811 by Baron von Stackelberg. Owing to the growing popularity of the "Corinth Puteal," Notarà took it to Zante (Zakynthos), an island noted for art dealing, where he sold it to Frederick North, the fifth Earl of Guilford, who took it to England. There the Corinth Puteal came to be called the Guilford Puteal. After North died in 1827, the puteal came into the possession of Thomas Wentworth Beaumont, who kept it at his home, Brenton Hall, near Leeds in northern England. After his death in 1848, the puteal disappeared. Beaumont’s house was sold and later demolished, and it was thought for many years that the Guilford Puteal had been destroyed. But at some point it and another ancient altar were sold to the West Riding County Council, which later established the Leeds College of Education, and the two altars were placed in a garden on campus, where they were rediscovered in 1992 by Susan Walker, who was then a curator at the British Museum. The Guilford Puteal was acquired in 2002 by the British Museum for approximately £300,000 ($544,032.38). Its identification and date were secured by the recent discovery of another altar just like it at Nikopolis, close to Actium, where Augustus (then known as Octavian) had defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE. Around the altar ten mythological figures are carved in low relief, as if in two converging processions. Apollo leads the first procession. He plays his lyre and is followed closely by his sister Artemis, bow in hand and stag at her side, and then by their mother Leto. Then comes Hermes escorting three women with bowed heads, perhaps nymphs or the Graces. The other procession is led by Athena, who wears an elaborate breastplate and carries a helmet and a weapon. Behind her, Herakles leads another woman, probably Hera or Aphrodite.
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