The over life-size profile head carved in high relief, portrayed with typical soft features, with deep-set eyes and full lips, the wavy hair secured beneath a fillet, the small ear...
The over life-size profile head carved in high relief, portrayed with typical soft features, with deep-set eyes and full lips, the wavy hair secured beneath a fillet, the small ear pierced, probably from a funerary stele.
French art market Christie's, London, 5 October 2000, lot 215 David Rowse Collection, London, acquired from the above sale
Literature
This Greek marble head with her soft, idealising features recalls sculptures influenced by the workshop of the renowned Athenian sculptor Praxiteles. Characteristics of the sculptor’s work include deep set eyes, and full, slightly parted lips, both of which this example displays and are also captured in the ‘Kaufmann’ head of Knidian Aphrodite: see A. Stewart, Greek Sculpture I-II, Yale University, 1990, p. 176, pls. 506-507. Monumental funerary stelai of the period also show the influence of Praxiteles, and the impassive facial expression of this head has parallels with such high relief sculpture. For further discussion, see C.W. Clairmont, Classical Attic Tombstones, Kilchberg, 1993