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A GREEK MARBLE HEAD OF A GODDESS
- HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH-2ND CENTURY B.C.

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A GREEK MARBLE HEAD OF A GODDESS
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH-2ND CENTURY B.C.
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    £120,000 - £150,000
  • ($183,840 - $229,800)

Sale Information

Sale 5487
Antiquities
29 April 2010
London, South Kensington

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Lot Description

A GREEK MARBLE HEAD OF A GODDESS
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH-2ND CENTURY B.C.
Over life-size, her hair parted centrally and drawn back from her brow in smooth even waves, with oval face and rounded chin, her features idealised, the sharp eyebrows forming a contiunous sweep from the temples to the sides of her straight nose, with almond-shaped lidded eyes set back beneath her gently arching brow, her bowed lips slightly parted, with ears pierced, a row of four holes drilled on each side of her neck below the hairline and a further hole on each side of her head, for possible attachment of a helmet or diadem in another material, mounted
13 in. (33 cm.) high

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Provenance

Formerly in a French private collection, 1970s.

Lot Notes

The holes and flattened top part of her head suggest she may originally have had a separately made headdress or helmet attached. For a head of Athena with separately carved top section, cf. O. White Muscarella (ed.), Ancient Art. The Norbert Schimmel Collection, Mainz, 1974, no. 41. Statues were often formed of separate parts made in different materials and this head is likely to have been designed to fit, together with other extremities, into the body of a large cult statue.

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