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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.191
Title
Head of a Female Figure
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
150-50 BCE
Period
Hellenistic period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/292369

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Marble from Greek islands (?)
Dimensions
5.1 cm (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
1920.44.191
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
68

Head of a Female Figure

All surfaces are very worn.

The hair is drawn back into a bun above the back of the neck. This head could have come from a small figure of a draped woman, the late Hellenistic counterpart in marble of Tanagra figurines.

Small statues and statuettes of Aphrodite in the nude, sandal-binders, figures like the Medici Venus, and related "Rhodian nymphs" also have heads similar to this example (Marcadé, 1969, pls. XLVII-XLIX). Draped statues or statuettes with this form of fourth-century to Hellenistic head are often little more than dressed-up "fountain nymphs" leaning against supports (Marcadé, 1969, pl. XXXI).

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. 85, no. 68

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