HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 3RD-2ND CENTURY B.C.

The idealised beauty of this portrait, her youthful appearance, indeterminate age and uniform features, are typical of representations of females in the Hellenistic era. Only hairstyles and dress vary, with precise identification of individuals only possible if there is a dedicatory inscription. Even representations of queens and goddesses are undifferentiated from other women, but for the presence of a diadem or crown to distinguish them. This uniformity of style presents problems for the typology of portraiture of the period, especially when the body is lost, which accounts for the divergent opinions on the dating of such sculpture. Nonetheless, we can reasonably assume that this head would have belonged to a funerary statue for a girl whose family was sufficiently wealthy as to be able to afford a dedication to her in marble.

Stylistically, this head recalls earlier Hellenistic works dating from the 4th Century B.C. such as the famous figure of the poetess Corinna from Tanagra sculpted by Silanion, a contemporary of Lysippos, cf. M. Bieber, The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age, New York, 1961, p.44, fig. 120-122. Compare also the head of Artemis from the temple of Despoina group in Lykosoura, cf. N. Kaltsas, Sculpture in the National Archaeological Musuem, Athens, 2002, p. 279.