A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A GIRL

CIRCA LATE 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A GIRL
CIRCA LATE 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.
Her small oval face tapering to her pointed chin, with heavy-lidded almond-shaped eyes, drilled at the inner canthi, the irises and pupils articulated, her prominent nose merging with the linear brows, her small mouth dimpled at the corners, her hair arranged in a melon coiffure, parted in the center and combed in parallel rows running from the forehead to the back of the head and gathered in a ovoid braided bun, the locks delineated
8 in. (23 cm.) high

Provenance

Richard Lombardi, Baltimore.
with Ariadne Galleries, New York, 1980s.

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Lot Essay

The melon coiffure became popular during the Hellenistic Period, and remained the fashion for young girls into at least the early third century A.D. According to La Rocco (p. 141 in Kleiner and Matheson, eds., I Claudia, Women in Ancient Rome), the coiffure indicates that the subject was not yet married. For a portrait of a girl with a similar melon coiffure see no. 73 in Kleiner and Matheson, eds. op. cit.

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