A Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Greek Man of Letters, probably Homer, circa 2nd Century A.D.

probably Jules, Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661), Rome and Paris

Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke (1656-1733), Wilton House, Wiltshire, acquired prior to 1733

Sidney Charles, 16th Earl of Pembroke (1906-1969), Wilton House, by descent (Christie's, Wilton House, Wilton House, A Selected Portion of the Collection of Ancient Marbles formed by Thomas 8th Earl of Pembroke, July 3rd, 1961, no. 129)

the sinologist Arthur Waley (1899-1966)

British private collection, by descent from the above

acquired by the present owner on the London art and antiques market in 2014

Published

Richard Cowdry, A description of the pictures, statues, busto’s, basso-relievo’s, and other curiosities at the Earl of Pembroke’s house at Wilton, London, 1751, p. 5

James Kennedy, A description of the antiquities and curiosities in Wilton House, Salisbury, 1758, p. 21

Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 688f., no. 84

Frederik Poulsen, Greek and Roman Portraits in English Country Houses, Oxford, 1923, p. 45, no. 18, illus.

Robert and Erich Boehringer, Homer. Bildnisse und Nachweise, vol. 1, Breslau, 1939, p. 66f., no. 12, pls. 36 and 43

Georg Lippold, "Review of Boehringer cit.," Deutsche Literaturzeitung, vol. 62, Berlin, 1941, col. 940

Gisela M. A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, vol. 1, London, 1965, p. 49, no. 12, fig. 48

Peter Stewart, A Catalogue of the Sculpture Collection at Wilton House, Oxford, 2020, p. 403, no. 56

The only other known replica of this type is the head of a herm in Rome: Richter op. cit., p. 48, no. 3, figs. 31ff. It is possible that the type represents Homer. The Greek original was created in the Hellenistic period.

When at Wilton, the head was mounted on an alabaster draped bust inscribed in Greek "Sophocles". This inscription was probably commissioned by the 8th Earl of Pembroke himself, to whom "it was a matter of pride that no head that entered his collection could be allowed to remain anonymous" (J. Scott, The Pleasures of Antiquity. British Collectors of Greece and Rome, 2003, p. 43).

Other Roman marbles from the Wilton House collection sold at Sotheby’s include a monumental figure of a youth (New York, June 4th, 2009, no. 116), a portrait head of a man (London, July 3rd, 2018, no. 30), and a crouching figure of Silenus (London, July 2nd, 2019, no. 235).