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Lot Essay
This striking and enigmatic head presents an idealized youthful appearance. The deity’s oval face features a straight nose and small, bow-shaped lips above a rounded chin. Deeply-recessed, almond-shaped eyes –once inlaid – rest beneath gently-arching brows. The luxurious curls are largely surmounted by a veil, though two delicate, undulating locks escape down on either side of her long graceful neck. The drapery is finely carved in the round with deep folds.
While this deity was previously cataloged as a Genius – an attendant male spirit who served as a guardian to a person or a place – the presence of the long tresses indicate that a female spirit is likely depicted. As such, this deity may represent Iuno, a multidimensional spirit whose primary role involved the continuation of Roman society. As E. La Rocca notes (p. 815 in “Iuno,” LIMC, vol V, pt. 1), this goddess “attempts to individuate – or perhaps preserve – the primordial, collective value attached to the feminine” and whose function ensured “the reproduction of birth as a divine guarantee of the continuation of the community, and the protection of young women at the moment they become responsible for the survival of the societal group.” Depictions of Iuno are comparatively rare, but she is occasionally shown on the painted fresco panels of Pompeian lararia, where she is paired with a Genius and flanked by Lares (see fig. 101 in P. Roberts, Life and Death in Pompeii).
This head is first recorded in a 1929 photograph by Cesarae Faraglia (1865-1946) indicating it was in the collection of Ludwig Curtius (1874-1954), one of the 20th century’s leading archaeologists and the director of the German Archeological Institute in Rome from 1928-1938. Curtius, who studied under Adolf Furtwängler and later edited his papers, is perhaps best known for Die Wandmalerei Pompejis (The Wall Paintings of Pompeii), published in 1929.
While this deity was previously cataloged as a Genius – an attendant male spirit who served as a guardian to a person or a place – the presence of the long tresses indicate that a female spirit is likely depicted. As such, this deity may represent Iuno, a multidimensional spirit whose primary role involved the continuation of Roman society. As E. La Rocca notes (p. 815 in “Iuno,” LIMC, vol V, pt. 1), this goddess “attempts to individuate – or perhaps preserve – the primordial, collective value attached to the feminine” and whose function ensured “the reproduction of birth as a divine guarantee of the continuation of the community, and the protection of young women at the moment they become responsible for the survival of the societal group.” Depictions of Iuno are comparatively rare, but she is occasionally shown on the painted fresco panels of Pompeian lararia, where she is paired with a Genius and flanked by Lares (see fig. 101 in P. Roberts, Life and Death in Pompeii).
This head is first recorded in a 1929 photograph by Cesarae Faraglia (1865-1946) indicating it was in the collection of Ludwig Curtius (1874-1954), one of the 20th century’s leading archaeologists and the director of the German Archeological Institute in Rome from 1928-1938. Curtius, who studied under Adolf Furtwängler and later edited his papers, is perhaps best known for Die Wandmalerei Pompejis (The Wall Paintings of Pompeii), published in 1929.