A Roman Marble Janiform Herm Head of Zeus Ammon and a Satyr, circa 2nd Century A.D.

one side carved with the head of a youthful grinning satyr with swept-up hair, the other with the head of Zeus Ammon with full beard and long moustache, his centrally parted hair bound in a diadem and falling in three long braids on each side, the eyes of both heads with deeply incised irises and pupils.

probably from an Italian private collection, pre-19th Century (based on the surfaces of the nose and underside of the neck, which were worked to received marble restorations)
K. A. Pegler, London (Sotheby's, London, July 10th, 1992, no. 472, illus.)

Surface weathered overall, especially head of satyr, lower part of head of and nose of Zeus Ammon formerly restored in marble.
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Only three other double herms of this type are known: one is in the Antikensammlung Berlin (A. Conze, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der antiken Skulpturen mit auschluss der pergamenischen Fundstücke, Berlin, 1891, no. 16, engr., acquired in Rome in 1841), one is in a New England private collection (formerly Rome art market [Photographische Einzelaufnahmen antiker Sculpturen, Munich, 1938, no. 5040], then Sotheby's, New York, December 7th, 2001, no. 79), and one was recorded by Georg Zoega in Rome in the Cortile del Mastre Sante ai Chiavari in the 18th Century (see F. Matz and F. v. Duhn, Antike Bildwerke in Rom, Leipzig, vol. I, 1881, no. 542).

On the first and third example a tall flaring calathos made of long, flat leaves still survives on top of the head, in one case at least with a square mortise preserved on top. One of these two herms is likely to be the same one depicted in a 16th Century drawing in the British Museum (C. C. Vermeule, "The Dal Pozzo-Albani Drawings in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the British Museum," Transactions of the American Philological Society, vol. 50, 1960, p. 27, Fol. 65, no. 389.

All three herms mentioned above were carved from the same type of gray-veined marble as the present example, are first attested in Rome, and seem to have had the same supportive function. In terms of workmanship and style the second herm, which is the only one for which photographs are readily available, is virtually identical to the present one, down to the scale, direction of the veins, and location of the break; the only differences are the hollowed-out eyes of Zeus Ammon and the unarticulated eyes of the satyr. All four herms could be the product of the same workshop and could have served together as supports for an unidentified superstructure within the same monument in Rome.

For a discussion of the religious beliefs that could have led to combining heads of satyrs and Zeus Ammon on janiform herms see A. Giumlia, Die neuattischen Doppelhermen, diss., Vienna, 1983, p. 123.