Portait Head

Portait Head

Marble

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.

Roman

Purchased from Sotheby and Co, London, 1992

30 BC - AD 50

92.004

Purchased from Sotheby and Co, London, 1992.
Gifted to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 11/12/1968.
Acquired by Paul E. Manheim, New York, c. 1968.