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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.1314
Title
Head of a Warrior from a Sarcophagus
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
mid 3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291279

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pentelic marble
Dimensions
actual: 12.7 cm (5 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1314
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
122

Head of a Warrior

Antonine or possibly early Severan period.

The nose is damaged, and there are chips over the right brow, left ear, and back of the helmet. There are drillmarks in the interior corners of the eyes, nostrils, edges of the mouth, ears, and curls of hair. The surface has been reworked (Guntram Koch).

The helmeted head is tilted back and to the left. The face has a pained expression, with furrowed brow and a slightly opened, Skopaic mouth.

There are many parallels for this head, which came from an Attic battle sarcophagus. One (tilted downward instead of upward) belongs to the Greek on horseback, raising his sword to strike, on the Attic sarcophagus with Amazonomachy in the Museum at Thessaloniki (Giuliano, 1962, p. 44, no. 217, photograph on cover). A similarly helmeted head of identical dimensions, with a polish to the surfaces, was thought to be perhaps an Amazon from a sarcophagus of the late Antonine to early Severan periods (Johnson, 1931, p. 120, no. 243).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 256 (checklist).
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 134, no. 122
  • Carola Kintrup, Die attischen Sarkophage, vol. 2: Amazonomachie - Schlacht - Epinausimachie, Deutschen Archäologischen Institute/Gebr. Mann Verlag (Berlin, 2016), pp. 141-142, 239, no. 83

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu