Portrait Head

Dublin Core

Title

Portrait Head

Subject

MARBLE

Description

A large marble portrait head of a mature and dignified woman from the late Republican or early Imperial period. The face is squarish with large round eyes and cheeks. The nose is largely missing and other details have been damaged or abraded especially in the chin area. Nevertheless, the eyelids, the brow, the line where the lips meet and the lower lip are carefully shaped. The head inclines slightly to the right and the expression is sad or slightly anxious. It is set on a sturdy neck. A mantle is draped over the head, but hair is visible at the front. It is parted in the middle and looped back under the mantle, revealing the lower part of the ear on each side. The placement of the ears is asymmetric with the more carefully carved right ear higher than the left. The lower edge of the mantle is neatly squared probably to facilitate insertion into a full length statue. The light coloured coarse marble has a greyish, mottled and weathered surface appearance. There is a yellow seam at the base of the neck on the left. As well as the damage already noted, there is a large dint on the left side of the mantle towards the rear.

Function:
This head probably comes from a full-length commemorative or funerary statue. Such statues of dignified, draped older women were common in the late Republican or early Imperial periods.

Source

Purchased from Sotheby and Co, London, 1992

Date

30 BC - AD 50

Identifier

92.004

Files

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/28220/archive/files/e7cea00bb66c0b5914c8f4593bfd8a3d.jpg

Citation

“Portrait Head,” RD Milns Antiquities Museum Online Exhibitions, accessed May 7, 2024, https://uqantiquitiesonlineexhibitions.omeka.net/items/show/47.