A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A MAN

JULIO-CLAUDIAN PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A MAN
JULIO-CLAUDIAN PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
Depicted with his head turned slightly to his left, his hair arranged in short overlapping locks, a single lock curving inward before each ear, the top of his head with an ancient contact surface worked flat for piecing, his features modelled with slightly sunken cheeks, his sharply-sculpted brows arching over lidded convex unarticulated eyes, his bow-shaped mouth with full pursed lips, the philtrum indicated, his square chin prominent
10 in. (26.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Private Collection, England, acquired in the late 1970s.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 8 June 2004, lot 58.
Private Collection, London.

Brought to you by

G. Max Bernheimer

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Lot Essay

It was a common practice in the Roman Period to finish portraits in another material, either plaster or stone. As the surface would have originally been painted, the join would not have been visible. For a female portrait, circa 230 A.D. in The Detroit Institute of Arts, with a separately-worked hairpiece in dark marble, see no. 130 in Kleiner and Matheson, eds., I Claudia, Women in Ancient Rome.

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