CIRCA MID 3RD CENTURY A.D.

Depicted approximately three-quarters lifesized, this figure has deeply-drilled wavy hair pulled back over the tops of her ears, with two distinctive antithetical curls above the forehead. Her arching brows frame thickly-lidded eyes with bean-shaped irises. She has an oval face with a slender nose and full, pursed lips; the earlobes are drilled. The back has a large, off-center strut, suggesting that she was once part of a relief, with the head turned somewhat to her left.

The scale and style indicates that she was originally part of a large sarcophagus, and very likely depicts a Muse. The break at the forehead may once have been surmounted by plumes, symbolic of the Sirens whom they defeated in a musical contest. For related Muse sarcophagi, see no. 5 in A.M. McCann, Roman Sarcophagi in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and especially the sarcophagus of Lucius Pullius Peregrinus, no. 27 in S. Settis and C. Gasparri, eds., The Torlonia Marbles.