CIRCA LATE 4TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK MARBLE GIRL
CIRCA LATE 4TH CENTURY B.C.
Depicted in her youth, wearing a long short-sleeved high-belted chiton with overfold, a band over her shoulders crossing her chest and upper back, cinching the fabric along her back, the chiton falling in deep vertical folds below, standing with her left leg slightly advanced, her arms bent acutely, the hands once meeting at the center of her chest, a snake bracelet coiled around each forearm, the separately-made head and neck inserted into the bust, her round youthful face with large almond-shaped lidded eyes, her small mouth with the fleshy lips slightly parted, her hair arranged in an elaborate coiffure consisting of five rows of deeply-drilled individual tight curls framing her face, brushed forward at the front, and encircled by a groove perhaps for a now-missing fillet
33½ in. (85.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Sarkis Collection, Switzerland.
Ishiguru Collection, Japan, mid 1960s.
with Galerie Archaïque, Japan, 1985.

Brought to you by

G. Max Bernheimer

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Lot Essay

Distinctive half-length female busts were a sculptural form unique to the Greek colony of Cyrenaica. The type is funerary in nature, and represents Persephone, the Goddess of the Dead, or other chthonic deities, rising up from the ground. The lower extremities were not sculpted, as they were conceived as being still below ground. For a full discussion of the type see p. 439 in Beschi, "Sculpture in Greek Cyrenaica" in Caratelli, ed., The Western Greeks, and no. 416, op. cit..

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