At a friend's party here yesterday, I noticed a lichen-covered, slightly blurred carving of a figure which I took to be one of the many bits of cast concrete artwork that you find discarded and neglected in people's gardens.
H.I. mentioned it and a little later I picked it up and looked at it a little closer. I turned it over and saw that it was made of marble. Suddenly my interest in it picked up!
My gut feeling was that it was ancient and depicted a man carrying an animal. I said that if he was carrying a child, then this would definitely be Hermes. The marble is so blurred and weather-beaten that it was not until this morning that I took another look at it to see that the figure is carrying a child. Much of the child is missing, but where the head used to be is clearly visible in the daylight. You can see the legs and feet too.
So this bit of neglected sculpture is of Hermes carrying the infant Dionysus and is most likely from one of the Hermetic cults which have sprung up since Roman times, when Romans called Hermes Mercury. Because the white marble is Italian, I think it must have been brought over by the Romans or brought back to here by a collector, then forgotten about. Maybe I will never find out which.
I am going to gently clean it up and my friend (who sometimes reads these posts!) will then keep it indoors - safely! I love ancient mysteries like this. The carving looks to be around 2000 - 1000 years old.
I would be over the moon to find that, and then know what it's about. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great find. Most things survive by simply not getting any attention.
DeleteOh, wow...how interesting! Can you post a photo of it, please?
ReplyDeleteYes I will, now that I have the owner's permission.
DeleteAnd here I am, crass and uneducated American, thinking Hermes only made scarves. Would also so love to see a photo of the figure after you've cleaned it up.
ReplyDeleteI will put up work in progress pictures.
DeleteAmazeballs.
ReplyDeleteYesballs.
DeleteExciting. You have to think of all the hands that have held it in the past, including the sculptor of course.
ReplyDeleteHundreds of years - thousands, even.
DeleteWhy no photo?
ReplyDeleteLX
There will be.
DeleteOf COURSE it's 2,000 years old. That's what I love about England. Kick up a bit of loose dirt anywhere on the isle and you find the tomb of a Plantagenet, or a horde of Viking jewelry, or an ancient cult figure from classical Rome.
ReplyDeleteI though Mercury/Hermes always held a caduceus.
Is a caduceus the thing with snakes entwined? In my research, I have found him with a child in one hand and a flask (of wine?) in the other. Our one is holding something which has long eroded.
DeleteI love little mysteries like this one.one man's junk eh
ReplyDeleteLike I always say, things survive longest when nobody cares about them.
DeleteDid your friend know it was there or from whence it came ? XXXX
ReplyDeleteNo. It came with the house and garden.
DeleteI will put up pictures of it, but only with my friend - the owner's - permission. How about it, F?
ReplyDeleteI now have permission. In the daylight I will oblige.
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ReplyDeleteI thought you were Woody for a minute.
DeleteWow, how exciting, looking forward to the picture.
ReplyDeleteComing up.
DeleteSo like the casual enquiry of someone carrying an indeterminate item in an episode of Antiques Roadshow! Oh yes, I found this in a skip/loft/car-boot sale...thought it might be handy to prop open the garage door.
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to take an old door-stop to the Antiques Roadshow and say that I have been using it to prop the garage door open.
DeleteI'm jealous; Oh how I'd love to find that in my garden!
ReplyDeleteAt last you are jealous.
DeleteHow.........can't think of the right word to describe the feeling I would have if I found one at the bottom of my garden. Something like joy and wonder.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite unpreossesing at the moment, which you will see from the photo.
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