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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.141
Title
Fragment of a Head of a Female Figure
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
150 BCE-50 BCE
Period
Hellenistic period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/292650

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Marble from Greek mainland
Dimensions
H. 6.7 cm (2 5/8 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
1920.44.141
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
69

Fragment of a Head of a Female Figure

The upper left side of the face is broken away. The nose and chin are damaged.

The head is a pale reflection of the major cult images of Pheidian Athens of the Hera or Demeter type surviving in overlifesized copies. It probably came from a small draped statue.

The Demeter of the Vatican offers an indication of the type of colossal Roman copy that suggests the source for a small Hellenistic head of the type at the Harvard University Art Museums (Winter, 1900, pl. 282, no. 8).

Small statues or large statuettes in the best Greek traditions of 440-340 B.C. and representing Demeter or Persephone in the full, heavy garments of major cult images were popular in Attica, and, especially, the Greek islands. The Demeter or Persephone von Matsch, once in Vienna and now in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, represents the latest end of the spectrum (Vermeule, C., 1981, p. 86, no. 56). At the beginning of the fourth century B.C. we have the Demeter in the Museo Archeologico, Venice, which has the mantle drawn up over the head and a heavy peplos below (Fuchs, 1969, pp. 212-213, fig. 228). It seems safe to say that when these small statues in the sartorial taste of Kephisodotos's Eirene with Plutos are veiled, they represent the elder agricultural goddess. When they are unveiled, as here and the small statue from the von Matsch collection, they show Demeter's daughter Persephone.

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. 86, no. 69

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