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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1949.47.67
Title
Fragment of a Small Head of a Woman
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
325-450 CE
Period
Roman Imperial period, Late, to Early Byzantine
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291709

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Proconnesian marble
Dimensions
actual: 15.2 cm (6 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, Sold to the Fogg Art Museum, 1948.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year
1949
Object Number
1949.47.67
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
145

Fragment of a Small Head of a Woman

The head from the lower eyelids back through the top of the ears to the center of the back of the head is missing. The remains of the nose and the face are chipped. The condition of the back of the head suggests it may have been reused as a building block. There are drill points in the corners of the mouth, eyes, and ears.

The lady has a plump, round face with ample jowls. Her hair is plaited symmetrically in back, and has a net of incised cross-hatching. Enough of the incised pupils of the eyes survives to show that the lady, who is middle-aged or older, was glancing sideways, to her right. The ears are well modeled, and there are four incised lines in front of the earlobes.

Among the good number of portraits in marble of women that relate to this fragment, there is a lady of much thinner, longer face in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (Poulsen, F., 1951, p. 529, no. 762, pl. LXV; Poulsen, V., 1974, pp. 192-193, no. 199, pls. CCCXXIV, CCCXXV, as a possible Helena from Asia minor). The plump face of the Harvard head is present in a head of an elderly woman with her garment drawn up over the back of the hairnet with its crisscross lines; this portrait is in the Museum at Side in Pamphylia (Inan, Rosenbaum, 1966, pp. 201-202, no. 277, pl. CLIV).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • 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. 157, no. 145

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