Among the latest pieces is the fragmentary amethyst signed by Dioskourides. Dioskourides worked for Augustus himself, one of the Greek artists patronized by the imperial family. The face of his work is missing, the remaining parts, however, suggest that he followed the main lines of the type. Some of the Herakles heads listed here have been identified with Omphale rather than the hero himself. This is another Classicizing feature, where the highly canonical facial features show only subtle distinctions of gender.
Herakles Sicyon analysis
The sole complete example of the type of Herakles with a vine, ivy or laurel wreath in his hair, long thought to copy the statue carved by Skopas for the gymnasium at Sicyon, suffered neglect from archaeologists ever since. Badly broken in the nineteenth century, it lay in the sand caves near Deepdene House until its rediscovery after the sale of the Hope collection in 1917 and was eventually sold to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it is to be found today (A1: PLATE 31a-c)[21]. The quality of the copy is average, and it may date from the Antonine period. Its provenience is unknown.
Boardman (1999) correctly likened the head type, best represented by the Genzano herm in the British Museum (A3: PLATE 30) to the Tegea heads; the proportions and structure strongly recall earlier figures, as does the modeling of the brow and mouth, although the eyes are less deeply set and the features as a whole have less concentration and power in them than those of the Tegea heads. The figure is also characteristic of the Tegea heads, as is the rounded, heavy jaw; this and the long face recall the features of the ‘Apollo’ from the eastern territory at Epidaurus. The overall pose is repeated with little modification on the Telephos head, although when viewed in profile it is clear that particularly as regards the structure of the head and its relation to the neck much work has yet to be done before the fully developed Tegean form is mastered[22].
