Mercury
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Bronze sculpture of Mercury. He stands with the weight on his right leg, with his right arm extended and the left arm at his side covered by his chlamys. The left hand held the kerykeion; a purse may have been in the extended right. Fingertips of right hand broken off. Green patina. Stands on a circular plinth.

Provenance

About 1780, discovered at Neufville-Saleches, near Le Quesnoi, France and acquired by Augustin Carlier (b. 1732 - d. 1818), Bavay, Belgium [see note 1]; 1833, given with the Carlier collection to the city of Douai, France and accessioned by the Douai Museum (inv. no. 574) [see note 2]; July 3, 1901, stolen from the Douai Museum by a M. Richard. By 1903, Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), London [see note 3]; 1904, sold by Warren to the MFA [see note 4]; October 25, 2012, deaccessioned by the MFA for return to the city of Douai.



NOTES:

[1] See H[enri] Bievelet and G[ermaine] Faider-Feytmans, Deuxieme supplement au Recueil des bronzes de Bavai, Gallia 21, no. 2 (1963), p. 257, n. 19 and H[enri] Beivelet, "Un collectionneur hereux: Note sur la collection de l'Abbé Carlier," in Etudes Bavaisiennes: Mélanges offerts au Chanoine Bievelet (Lille, 1976), pp. 39, 41, 46, 48. The statuette seen in 1808 in the collection of Carlier by Martin-Jean de Bast, who published it in his Second supplement au Recueil d'Antiquités Romaines et Gauloises de Bavai et Famars (Ghent, 1813), p. 52, cat. no. 1, pl. II, fig. ix.



[2] While it was at the Douai Museum, the statuette was known as "Antinoüs"



[3] Lent by E. P. Warren to the "Exhibition of Ancient Greek Art" (Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1903), no. 35 (as "statuette of Hermes").



[4] Purchased for $74,100 (the total price for MFA accession nos. 04.6 - 04.37). Accession Date: January 19, 1904.

Credit Line

Henry Lillie Pierce Fund

Mercury

  • Roman, Imperial Period, 1st–2nd century A.D.
Dimensions
Height: 15 cm (5 7/8 in.)
Medium or Technique
Bronze
Classification
Sculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Greek, Etruscan, & Roman Bronzes (MFA), no. 110; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 120 (additional published references).
Accession Number
04.9
Not on view

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