“Hey, look closely!” I say, my voice filled with excitement. Right before us stands the Mercury Sculpture in Whewell’s Court at Trinity College. It is a bronze statue. This Mercury is more than just a statue. It’s a story cast in bronze.
This particular Mercury statue has been here since November 2, 1972. It marks a spot with coordinates TL4489158700. This Mercury is a copy of a Roman bronze. The original was discovered at Herculaneum in 1758. Herculaneum was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.
The original Mercury was found at the Villa dei Papiri. This villa was a luxurious residence by the sea. Karl Weber directed the excavations in the mid-eighteenth century. He worked for Charles VII, the King of Naples and Sicily.
The sculpture was placed near the fishpond in the villa’s peristyle. Today, the original is housed in Naples. It is in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale. Scholars believe it’s a Roman copy. It dates from around 100 BC to 79 AD. It was made after a Greek bronze from 340-310 BC.
Our Mercury stands as a testament to the allure of classical sculpture. The Neapolitan foundries made copies of antiquities. This became fashionable in the 19th and 20th centuries. Sabatino de Angelis was one of the best of these sculptors. His foundry was established in 1840.
De Angelis’s firm supplied casts to royal houses and museums. These museums were located in London, New York and Chicago. Edward Robinson called Sabatino De Angelis the best of the Neapolitan copyists. The Mercury statue was available in various sizes. It also came in two colors. There was “Herculaneum” and “moderne”.
Another copy of the Mercury is at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery in Preston. George Bidder presented the Cambridge Mercury in 1922. He was the proprietor of Parker’s Hotel in Naples.