Head of a Child | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1920.44.222
Title: Head of a Child
Classification: Sculpture
Work Type: sculpture, head
Date: 1st-2nd century CE
Period: Roman Imperial period
Culture: Roman
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/292367

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Marble, from Italy or North Africa
Dimensions: 15.2 x 6.4 cm (6 x 2 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Museum, 1920.

Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
Accession Year: 1920
Object Number: 1920.44.222
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
137

Head of a Child

The back of the bust is flat. The right side of the head and the left side of the nose are chipped. There are also chips on the right eyebrow, forehead, and right cheek. A crack runs vertically down the full side of the right cheek, and there is an incision going almost at right angles across the crack. The right side of the bust is finished, as is a curved section under the left side, as if for placement against a curved frame.

The pose is frontal, with the hair worn in curled bangs and a heavy wreath around the head. The cheeks are fat, and the chin pointed, the eyes hollowed out and mouth wide open. There are two incised ridges on the front of the neck. There is also a wreath with rosettes and leaves around the shoulders.

There is a possibility that these rosettes are intended to be bunches of grapes and that the ideal subject, a smiling child of the Neronian to Trajanic periods (A.D. 55-115), is the infant Dionysos or a satyr-child. The tops of the ears are covered by the vines and leaves. Save for the manner of representing the hair around the forehead, this bust is similar to the small, decorative herms set on shafts against walls in Pompeiian houses. Such herms vary widely as to subject matter, including older satyrs, Silenus, bearded Dionysos, and early Hellenistic kings who were represented in the fashions of these bearded divinities.

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. 149, no. 137

Exhibition History

32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/20/2018 - 05/06/2018

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

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1920.44.222: Head of a Child