A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A YOUNG WOMAN

CIRCA 220-240 A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A YOUNG WOMAN
CIRCA 220-240 A.D.
Perhaps in her late teens or early 20s, with sharp cheek bones and a pointed chin, the small mouth with rounded lips, the small almond-shaped eyes with the pupils articulated, the soft brows subtly modelled, her hair tucked behind her wide ears, center parted and pulled back in a now-missing fillet, folded up from the nape of her neck and fastened in thick braids at the top of her head, the back originally finished in a now-lost secondary material, the long graceful neck splaying at the base
12 3/8 in. (31.4 cm.) high

Provenance

with Sineau, Auxerre, France, 1988.

Lot Essay

The coiffure was popularized by the royal family from the time of Julia Mamaea, and is found on portraits from the entire first half of the 3rd century. See, for example, the portrait of Furia Sabina Tranquillina, wife of the Emperor Gordion, now in the British Museum, no. 349, p. 380 in Kleiner, Roman Sculpture.

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