A Roman Marble Herm of the Greek Poet Anakreon, 1st/2nd Century A.D.

based on an mid-5th Century B.C. original Greek bronze sculpture, turned to his left, with full beard and mustache, parted lips, and furrowed forehead, his hair bound in a fillet and falling in short curls over the forehead and temples; herm shoulders restored, nose formerly restored.

Prince Carl Alexander of Prussia (1801–1883), Schloss Glienicke, Berlin, probably acquired in Rome in the 1840s through Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781 - 1841), perhaps from the Vescovali brothers
Bernard Baruch Steinitz (1933-2012), Paris

Reinhard Kekulé, "Anakreon", Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, vol. 7, 1892, p. 120
Adolf Furtwängler, Meisterwerke der griechischen Plastik, Leipzig, 1893, p. 92, note 1
Johann J. Bernoulli, Griechische Ikonographie, vol. 1, München, 1901, p. 81, no. 6
Paul Arndt, La Glyptothèque Ny-Carlsberg, Munich, 1912, p. 43
Andreas Rumpf, "Wanderfahrt nach Glienicke", Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte Berlins, vol. 34, 1917, p. 61
German Hafner, "Anakreon und Xanthippos", Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, vol. 71, 1956, p. 3f., note 15
Gisela M. A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, vol. 1, London, 1965, p. 76f., no. 8
Adolf Greifenhagen, Gymnasium, vol. 81, 1974, p. 210
Emmanuel Voutiras, Studien zu Interpretation und Stil griechischer Porträts des 5. und frühen 4. Jhs., Bonn, 1980, p. 81f.
Sepp-Gustav Gröschel, "Glienicke und die Antike", in Schloss Glienicke, exh. cat., Berlin, 1987, p. 257
Harry Nehls, Italien in der Mark. Zur Geschichte der Glienicker Antikensammlung, Berlin, 1987, p. 14
Serena Brusini, "La decorazione scultorea della villa romana di Monte Calvo", Rivista dell’Istituto nazionale d’archeologia e storia dell’arte, vol. 23, 2000, p. 186, note 490
Claire Cullen Davison, Pheidias. The Sculptures & Ancient Sources, vol. 1, London, 2009, p. 414, no. 9
Maria G. Picozzi, ed., Palazzo Colonna, Appartamenti. Sculture antiche e dall’antico, Rome, 2010, p. 316, note 4.

Shoulders restored. Nose formerly restored, now missing, with dowel hole more apparent in reality that in photograph. Surface weathered with organic growths on cheeks, proper right side eye, forehead and beard. Chips and abrasions overall, consistent with age.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A plaster cast of the present head is in Berlin: http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/reproduktion/3304305.

The head is a copy of a type identified by the inscription on a herm copy in the Musei Capitolini (Richter, op. cit., p. 76, no. 1, fig. 274) as the Greek poet Anakreon (ca. 575–ca. 490 B.C.). An almost complete copy of the statue, found in 1835 in a Roman villa at Monte Calvo in the Sabine Hills, is in Copenhagen: Richter (op. cit.), p. 76, no. 5, figs. 278f.; F. Johansen, Catalogue Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Greek Portraits, 1992, pp. 18ff., no. 1. The poet is depicted nude, except for a light mantle around the shoulders, playing the lyre, and singing. The original is thought to be a work by Pheidias from ca. 450/40 B.C. For the written sources, dating, and interpretation of the original statue see S. Kansteiner, et al., eds., Der Neue Overbeck, vol. 2, 2014, pp. 287ff., no. 18. The present head originally sat on a herm, since the turn of the head differs from that of the Copenhagen statue.

The present herm was formerly at Schloss Glienicke in Berlin, the summer residence of Prince Carl Alexander of Prussia. The palace was designed in neoclassical style by Karl F. Schinkel in 1826. For the marbles still located there see F. Goethert, Katalog der Antikensammlung des Prinzen Carl von Preußen im Schloß zu Klein-Glienicke, 1972. Dispersed marbles from Glienicke Palace include a porphyry statue of a woman formerly at Bagshot Park and now in the British Museum (Gröschel, op. cit., p. 257, fig. 165; H. Gregarek, Kölner Jahrbuch, vol. 32, 1999, p. 189, no. B51), and a head of Athena now in the Antikenmuseum Basel (Gröschel, op. cit., p. 259, fig. 170; W. Schürmann, Antike Plastik, vol. 27, 2000, p. 66, no. K4, pls. 40f.).