A ROMAN MARBLE ARCHAISTIC HEAD OF A YOUNG WOMAN, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D. | A Roman Marble Archaistic Head of a Young Woman

her oval face with smiling mouth, lips deeply indented at the corners, finely arched brows, and eyes formerly inlaid, her ribbed wavy hair bound in a broad fillet, arranged in loops above the forehead and over the temples, and falling in a long broad plait over the nape of the neck, the neck carved for insertion; no restorations.

private collection or art market, Italy, 19th Century (based on drawings and Carrara marble circular socle)
Pietri collection, 2nd half of the 19th Century
Cazalis de Foundouce Collection, Montpellier, late 19th Century
Tajan, Paris, October 22nd, 2004, no. 26, illus. (prior to cleaning)

RECORDED
two measured drawings (en face and left profile), circa late 19th century, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Rome: http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/buchseite/936813; http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/buchseite/936814

This head belongs to a type known in several copies. The original appears to have been a creation of the late Hellenistic period inspired by Greek archaic sculpture. For the type, called “Brussels-Conservatori” in scholarly literature, see H. Herdejürgen, in: M. Fano Santi, ed., Studi di archeologia in onore di Gustavo Traversari, vol. 2, 2004, pp. 509ff. Another copy with the eyes formerly inlaid was in the Brummer Collection: Galerie Koller AG, Zurich, The Ernest Brummer Collection, vol. 2, 1979, p. 227, no. 626; Herdejürgen, op. cit., p. 514. Other copies were sold at Sotheby’s, London, December 13th, 1928, no. 50, and at Sotheby’s, New York, June 4th, 1998, no. 121. For the eponymous Brussels example see http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-marble-head-of-the-goddess-kore-persephone-ancient-greek-archaic-period-28350585.html and http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-marble-head-of-the-goddess-kore-persephone-ancient-greek-archaic-period-60158867.html.