A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A WOMAN
A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A WOMAN
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FACES OF THE PAST: ANCIENT SCULPTURE FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. ANTON PESTALOZZI
A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A WOMAN

JULIO-CLAUDIAN PERIOD, CIRCA 40-50 A.D.

Details
A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A WOMAN
JULIO-CLAUDIAN PERIOD, CIRCA 40-50 A.D.
9 ¼ in. (23.4 cm.) high
Provenance
Antiquities, Sotheby's, New York, 8 June 1994, lot 160.
Dr. Anton Pestalozzi (1915-2007), Zurich, acquired from the above; thence by descent to the current owner.
Literature
I. Jucker, Skulpturen der Antiken-Sammlung Ennetwies, Mainz am Rhein, 1995, Band 1, pp. 36-37, no. 19, pls. 39-40.
Arachne Online Database no. 1171840.

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Hannah Fox Solomon
Hannah Fox Solomon

Lot Essay

The subject of this portrait modeled herself after Antonia Minor, the daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor. Antonia popularized what became the typically-Augustan coiffure, based on Classical and Hellenistic goddesses, and continued through the reign of Tiberius.

Our sitter's wavy hair was originally center parted, pulled back over the tops of her ears and fastened at the nape of her neck. Here her undulating locks cascade down her neck rather than being pulled into a chignon. For a portrait of Antonia Minor displaying a similar coiffure, now at the Harvard Art Museums, see fig. 114 in D.E.E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture.

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