Object Literature
The Greek god Hermes (the Roman Mercury) was the god of translators and interpreters. He was the cleverest of the Olympian gods, and served as messenger for all the other gods. He ruled over wealth, good fortune, commerce, fertility, and thievery.
The tradition of making sculpture in terracotta represents one of the signal artistic accomplishments of ancient Italian cultures before and during the rise of Rome as the dominant regional power. From Pliny the Elder we learn that in the seventh century bc, an exiled Corinthian merchant, Demaratus, introduced the fashioning of figures from baked earth, an art that was “brought to perfection by Italy and especially by Etruria” .
Until the 18th Century, English collections of antiquities had consisted mainly of small, easily portable objects such as coins, intaglios and bronzes. Only a few very wealthy and powerful patrons, most notably Charles I and Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and Surrey (1585–1646), were able to acquire ancient sculpture. This was to change dramatically by the second half of the 18th Century. As the craze for classical art and sculpture swept over Britain and the rest of Europe, Rome established itself as the centre to which English milordi flocked in pursuit of culture and souvenirs.
An early example of its type, delightfully honest and true with a very authentic feel and one that could tell many a story.