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Relief with Athena, Herakles and a battle

A.D. 98–138
Medium/TechniqueMarble from Mount Pentelikon near Athens
DimensionsHeight: 0.25 m. length: 0.60 m.
Credit LineGift of Dr. and Mrs. Jerome M. Eisenberg in honor of Cornelius C. Vermeule III
Accession number1996.90
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsSculpture
ProvenanceBefore 1800, Giovanni Carlo Grimani (d. 1806), Venice [see note 1]; by 1819, possibly still in the Grimani collection [see note 2]. July 6, 1995, anonymous sale (Antiquities), Sotheby’s, London, lot 95, sold to Jerome M. Eisenberg, New York; 1996, gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jerome M. Eisenberg to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 22, 1996)

Notes:

[1] The relief appears in an 18th-century engraving of objects from the Grimani collection (Irene Favaretto, Arte Antica e Cultura Antiquaria nelle Collezioni Venete al Tempo della Serenissima (Rome, 1990), p. 367, no. 10 reproducing an engraving in the archives of the Biblioteca del Civico Museo Correr di Venezia (Stampe E5, Incisioni in rame e disegni di antichita (sec. XVIII)). Since the relief does not appear in Antonio Maria Zanetti’s 1740/1743 inventory of the Grimani collection, Delle antiche statue greche e romane : che nell'antisala della Libreria di San Marco, e in altri luoghi pubblici di Venezia si trovano, the relief must have been acquired after this date. Many thanks to Jörg Deterling with his assistance in verifying its ownership by Grimani.

[2] The relief may appear in Pitture e sculture nel Palazzo di Casa Grimani a S. Maria Formosa (1819) as a bas-relief in the Grimani collection, although its description lacks details to securely identify it with the MFA relief. No mention of the relief appears in the travel journals Guida per la Citta di Venezia (1815) or Reisen in Italien seit 1822 (1826). On the dispersal of the Grimani collection, see Favaretto 1990 (same as above, n. 1), pp. 91-93; Irene Favaretto, “Una tribuna ricca di marmi…” Aquileia Nostra LV (1984), coll. 212-214.

Head of a bearded man
about A.D. 150–192; first recut about A.D. 210–267; second recut about A.D. 400
Statuette of Aphrodite
about 325–300 B.C.
Youth
4th century B.C.
Head of a youth
about 330–320 B.C.
Grave stele of Aristomache
about 330–320 B.C.
Woman from a funerary monument
about 330–325 B.C.
Weeping Siren
about 350–325 B.C.
Head of an athlete pouring oil into his hand
late 2nd century B.C. after a late Classical original of around 360 B.C.
Youthful athlete (Apollo?)
about A.D. 100–150
Grave stele
about 325–320 B.C.
Youth
about 375–325 B.C.