CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A SOUTH ARABIAN ALABASTER HEAD OF A MAN
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.
With a long tapering neck and a thin oval face, the small ears projecting, the brows recessed, the large eyes inlaid with contrasting white material, possibly shell, the pupils further inlaid in blue glass, the large nose with indented nostrils, the small lips pursed into a slight smile, the upper lip recessed to indicate a moustache, a dimpled stud below the lower lip, the somewhat pointed chin slightly cleft, his beard a raised flange with some incising, the lower edge of the neck with a projecting tenon, the hair off set from the forehead and peaked at the center, the top and back of the head roughly finished, indicating that it was likely once set into a stela
10½ in. (26.6 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired in South Arabia, 1958-1959.
Captain John Aylward, R.A., F.I.C.S.; Sotheby's, London, 7-8 July 1994, lot 259.

Exhibited

Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, May - December 1960.
Birmingham City Art Gallery and Museum, 1960-1970.

Lot Essay

This exceptionally well-sculpted head is thought to have come from the Hayd ibn 'Aqil cemetery at Tamna'. These alabaster heads, unfinished on the top and back, were each once fitted with gypsum and set into a rectangular niche high up on an inscribed limestone stela. For complete examples see nos. 277-287 in Simpson, Queen of Sheba, Treasures from Ancient Yemen.

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