A Small Roman Marble Portrait Herm of Hermarchos, circa 2nd Century A.D.

turned very slightly to is left, with full beard, parted lips, long moustache, and aquiline nose, a shallow rectangular recess with dowel hole on each shoulder; base of herm added.

Fulvio Orsini (1529-1600), Palazzo Farnese, Rome, drawn by Theodor Galle in Orsini’s studio in 1598 and inventoried in Orsini’s Collection upon his death, in each case described as a portrait of Pittacus
European private collection, 18th Century (based on the restoration techniques)
English private collection, acquired in the late 1970s/early 1980s
David Cambridge, Cheltenham
Galerie Chenel, Paris, acquired from the above in 1998
French private collection, acquired from the above in 1999/2000

Fulvio Orsini, Theodoor Galle, and Johannes Faber, Illustrium imagines: Ex antiquis marmoribus, nomismatibus et gemmae expressae, Antwerp, 1606, p. 64, no. 11 (“Imago Pittaci […] Eiusdem caput in marmore apud Fulvium visitor, paullo minus quam naturale; & forsan in Museio aliquo, aut Bilbiotheca, ornamentis causa collocatum fuit”)
M.P. de Nolhac, “Les collections d’antiquités de Fulvio Orsini,” Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire, vol. 4, 1884, p. 183, no. 15 (“Testa di Pittaco col petto di termine”)
Manfred Kätzlmeier-Frank, Theodor Galles Zeichnungen zu Fulvio Orsinis Imagines. Der Codex Capponianus 228, Münster, 1993, pp. 212ff., no. 114 (drawing inscribed "Pittacus. Apud Fulvium Ursinum in marmore")
Marion van der Meulen, Rubens: Copies after the Antique. Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part XXIII, vol. II, p. 237f., no. 209, and vol. III, figs., 425-426 (Galle’s drawing from Codex Capponianus 228, and a copy of his drawing by a student of Rubens and retouched by him)

tip of nose abraded.
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The head belongs to a type identified by the inscription on a small bronze copy from Herculaneum as the greek philosopher Hermarchos of Mytilene (ca. 340–after 270 BC). For the type, dated in the mid-3rd cent. B.C., see R. von den Hoff, Philosophenporträts des Früh- und Hochhellenismus, 1994, pp. 75ff.

Fulvio Orsini, librarian to the Farnese family, was one of the foremost antiquarians of the second half of the cinquecento, known for some of the earliest identifications of ancient Greek and Roman portraits: see G.A. Cellini, Il contributo di Fulvio Orsini alla ricerca antiquaria, Roma 2004 (Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche. Memorie, s. IX, 18, 2004, pp. 227-513).