Head fragment (sculpture)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
Unknown
Materials
Marble
Measurements
310 mm (H)235 mm (W)240 mm (D)
Order this imageCollection
Downhill, County Londonderry
NT 180517
Summary
Fragment of a head of Polykleitos' Doryphoros, a high quality Roman copy of a Greek original. The head is a careful copy of the head of the Doryphoros ('Spear-bearer'), a statue attributed to Polykleitos and generally dated ca. 450-440 BC. It closely resembles the head of the herm found in the Villa of the Papiri in Herculaneum in May of 1753. The pointed tips of the individual locks that twist off the head are especially notable. Many of the Roman copies of the Doryphoros are very close; Roman sculptors clearly worked from good casts.