On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Marble portrait head of Hypereides
Copy of a Greek statue of the late fourth or early third century B.C.
Hypereides (c. 390-322 B.C.) was a prominent Athenian statesman and, like Demosthenes, an outspoken opponent of Macedon. He was an accomplished speechwriter and was famous for his defense of the hetaira (courtesan) Phryne, who was his lover. Phryne was celebrated in antiquity for her beauty and served as a model for the renowned marble statue of the nude Aphrodite at Knidos by Praxiteles, who was also her lover. When Hypereides eloquence at trial failed to move the judges in Phryne's favor, he instructed her to uncover her breast and thus assured her acquittal.
At least six other Roman copies of this Greek portrait type are known. It is probably a copy of bronze statue of the late fourth century B.C. erected in Athens after the city was freed of Macedonian domination by Demetrios of Phaleron in 307 B.C.
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