Copy of a Greek statue of the 1st half of the 3rd century B.C.
The philosopher, who lived from 341 to 271 B.C., must have been honored by a portrait statue made late in his lifetime or soon after his death. Numerous Roman copies reproduce the same original, showing the esteem in which Epicurus' teachings were held.
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[Until 1911, with Ettore Jandolo, Rome]; acquired in 1911, purchased from E. Jandolo.
Robinson, Edward. 1911. "A Head of Epicurus." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6(7): pp. 150, 152.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 239, fig. 146, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1925. "Recent Accessions of Ancient Marbles." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 20(4): p. 104.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 281, fig. 199, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 281, fig. 199, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Phillips, John Goldsmith. 1940. "Heads in Sculpture: A Special Exhibition, January 17–March 3." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 35(1): pp. 3, 5.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 122, 260, pl. 100b, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. no. 186, pp. 96–97, pl. 130, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: pp. 75, 78, fig. 7.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. p. 525, pl. 195d, Cambridge, England.
Haff, Ralf von den. 1994. Philosophenporträts des Früh- und Hochhellenismus, Biering and Brinkmann, ed. p. 71 n. 96, München.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 257, pp. 220, 455, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Picón, Carlos A. and Seán Hemingway. 2016. Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World no. 47, pp. 140–41, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 10, pp. 11, 39–41, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 149, pp. 299–300, New York: Scala Publishers.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. no. 35, pp. 32, 45, 148–50, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
