4TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK MARBLE HEAD OF A WOMAN
4TH CENTURY B.C.
From a funerary stele, facing in profile to the right, carved in high relief, gazing intently ahead, her wavy hair caught back under a fillet, the lips slightly parted, her ear pierced, some restoration to tips of nose, lips and chin, mounted
11½ in. (29.2 cm.) high

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Lot Essay

This head recalls 4th Century B.C. sculptures influenced by the workshop of the Athenian sculptor, Praxiteles (fl. 360-340 B.C.). His female figures were often endowed with an other-worldliness. Their soft, gentle faces gaze intently from deep-set eyes, with lips slightly parted. These qualities may still be glimpsed in some of the later Hellenistic and Roman copies of his famous statue, Aphrodite of Knidos, dating to 340s B.C. (cf. A. Stewart, Greek Sculpture, I-II, Yale University, 1990, pp. 176ff, pls. 506-507 for the "Kaufmann" head of the Knidian Aphrodite). They are seen, too, in the 4th Century B.C. series of monumental grave stelai where the figures are carved in high relief, often with faces etched with intense emotion.

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