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

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A WOMAN
JULIO-CLAUDIAN PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
11 in. (28 cm.) high

Provenance

with La Reine Margot, Paris.
Dr. Anton Pestalozzi (1915-2007), Zurich, acquired from the above, 1977; thence by descent to the current owner.

Literature

H. Jucker and D. Willers, eds., Gesichter: Griechische und römische Bildnisse aus Schweizer Besitz, Bern, 1982, pp. 96-97, no. 38.
I. Jucker, Skulpturen der Antiken-Sammlung Ennetwies, Mainz am Rhein, 1995, Band 1, pp. 37-38, no. 20, pls. 41-42.
Arachne Online Database no. 1082668.

Exhibited

Bernisches Historisches Museum, Gesichter: Griechische und römische Bildnisse aus Schweizer Besitz, 6 November 1982-6 February 1983.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Brought to you by

Claudio Corsi

CCorsi@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7752 3331

Lot Essay

During the Julio-Claudian period, prviate citizens often imitated to varying degrees the hairstyles and even borrowed the facial features of prominent women of the imperial household for their own portraits. This female portrait represents a private individual, modeling a hairstyle first popularised by Agrippina Minor. The sitter's centrally parted coiffure with a dense mass of ringlets and strands ending in curls framing the face, continued in popularity into the Neronian-Flavian period in private portraiture, as for example in a portrait of Staia Quinta, a wealthy liberta (ex-slave), in the Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, Copenhagen (F. Johansen, Catalogue Roman Portraits I, 1994, no. 86).

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