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

The identity of this idealized beauty is a mystery to the modern viewer. As R.R.R. Smith notes (p. 93 in Hellenistic Royal Portraits), within the sculptural repertoire of the Hellenistic Period, “the identity of type of such highly idealized images is hard to establish.” With her center-parted hair, a rounded face with thickly-lidded almond-shaped eyes and fleshy lips, the present example is comparable to a large head of Athena ascribed to Euboulides, no. 625 in N. Kaltsas, Sculpture in the National Archeological Museum, Athens. Alternatively, this head may instead be a portrait rather than a depiction of a goddess (see the so-called Kassel and Hirsch Queens, thought to represent Arsinoe II and Berenike II, respectively, nos. 53 and 54 in Smith, op. cit.). However, as Smith contends (op. cit., p. 91), even the identification of these portraits is not secure as “these heads are not so much portrait-like as newly created ideals. There are many sculpted heads that use one or a combination of these female royal ideals, but not many are certainly queens and even fewer that are sufficiently close to be securely identified as Arsinoe or Berenike.” However, without attributes or accompanying inscriptions the precise identity remains unknown.