statue
- Museum number
- 1805,0703.42
- Description
-
Parian marble terminal figure of a hermaphrodite feeding a bird.
- Production date
- 2ndC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 1.21 metres
- Curator's comments
-
Restored in the 18th century.
-
Cook 2013, nr. 189:
Townley's description; ‘A Hermaphrodite ending from the waist downwards in a Terminus; it holds in the right hand a bunch of grapes, at which an Ibis, held under the left arm, is pecking. it was found 1774 at the Lake of Nemi’ (TY 12/3; Chambers, dining room 6).
In the parlour catalogues, Townley again recorded the place and date of discovery incorrectly: it was actually found near Frascati. For details of the discovery and Townley’s acquisition of the piece from Jenkins (including different accounts of the cost), see the previous item.
Drawings:
* Townley drawing 2010,5006.48 (a tentative attribution to Hamilton can hardly be correct since it was never in his hands), mounted with engraving 2010,5006.49;
* Nollekens : B. F. Cook, `The Townley Marbles in Westminster and Bloomsbury’, The British Museum Yearbook, 2 (1977), 46, figs. 28-29, no. 6;
* Chambers: B. F. Cook, `The Townley Marbles in Westminster and Bloomsbury’, The British Museum Yearbook, 2 (1977), 42-43, figs. 24-25, no. 33.
Bibliography:
- Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum (1808), VI.97;
- Ancient Marbles of the British Museum, X, pl. 30;
- A Guide to the Graeco-Roman Sculptures in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2 vols. (London, 1874 [1892] and 1876), I, no. 167;
- A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol. III (London 1904), 69, no. 1683;
- R. Garland, ‘Deformity and Disfigurement in the Graeco-Roman World’, History Today (November 1992), 43 (ill.).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1805
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1805,0703.42
