A GREEK MARBLE HEAD OF A GODDESS

LATE HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK MARBLE HEAD OF A GODDESS
Late Hellenistic Period, Circa 1st Century B.C.
The life-sized head with her hair bound in a fillet spread over the lower third of the chignon, then wound around the base of the knot, over the top of the head and across the forehead, with wavy locks extending at the temples from beneath the bands, an additional strip of cloth running vertical toward the separately-made and now-missing top knot, her oval face with soft, youthful features, the almond-shaped lidded eyes beneath finely-modelled, arching brows that merge with her slender nose, her cheekbones subtly rendered, her small fleshy lips curved into a slight smile, her rounded chin with the hint of a dimple, and her neck with two Venus wrinkles, the remains of drapery visible along the back and right side of her neck, preserving traces of the original red pigment
10 1/8 in. (25.7 cm) high

Lot Essay

The treatment of the wide fillet, which is wrapped several times around the head, is known from several Late Hellenistic and Roman copies of a Pheidian original, including one half of a double herm in Madrid and a complete figure formerly in Palazzo Cepparelli in Florence. Although the type was formerly identified as Sappho, it seems more likely that these heads depict Aphrodite. See fig. 20b, 21b and 23 in Furtwängler, Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture.

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