A HELLENISTIC GREEN SCHIST PORTRAIT OF A QUEEN

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Details

A HELLENISTIC GREEN SCHIST PORTRAIT OF A QUEEN
Egypt, Circa Late 3rd Century B.C.

Perhaps depicting Arsinoe III, her full face with large, heavy-lidded eyes beneath arching brows, a small mouth and jutting chin, her forhead forming a continuous profile with the slender bridge of her nose, her wavy hair tied with carefully delineated ribbons and gathered in a large knot in back
2in. (5.1cm.) high

Provenance

Mathias Komor, New York
An American Private Collection

Lot Essay

The distinctive physiognomy of this portrait is closely paralled by a marble head in Boston and a basalt head in Copenhagen, both now recognized as depicting Arsinoe III. See nos. 70 and 71 in Bianchi, Cleopatra's Egypt: Age of Ptolemies