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.
Lifesized, depicted in her late teens or twenties, with sharp cheek bones and a pointed chin, the mouth small, the convex almond-shaped eyes with the irises and pupils articulated, the inner canthi deeply drilled, with heavy lids and sagging bags below, the thick brows with individual hairs incised, her hair center parted, scalloped across her forehead, pulled back and tucked behind her large ears, folded up from the nape of her neck and fastened in thick braids at the top of her head, a fringe of corkscrew curls along the nape of her neck, a single curl before each ear, the clavicle contoured along the splayed neck, a mortise drilled into the base of the neck from the front
14½ in. (36.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Thierry Cambelong, Switzerland, 1970.

Lot Essay

The coiffure worn by this woman was popularized by the royal family beginning with Julia Mamaea (ca. 180-235 A.D.), 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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