Description
This elegant portrait is the intentional likeness of a young woman in her early twenties who had a delicate brow, high cheekbones, wide-set eyes, a bow-shaped mouth, and a prominent chin. Her long tresses are arranged in an elaborate hairstyle, fashionable at different times during the imperial period, in which the hair was parted in the center, combed in waves over the forehead, and plaited into braids that were artfully wrapped around the head like a turban. Broken off at the neck, it was once part of a larger statue.
Provenance
With Byron Zoumboulakis, Geneva, prior to 1960 [according to C.C. Vermeule, Zoumboulakis previously offered the portrait head to MFA Boston, letter in curatorial file]. H.M. Calmann, London, by 1960; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1960.
Accession Number
11611
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
22 × 18 × 20.6 cm (8 7/8 × 7 × 8 in.)
Classification
sculpture
Credit Line
Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson