Head of a Young Woman (Small Herculaneum Woman type)

25 B.C.–A.D. 25

Medium

Marble

Dimensions

23 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-223754

The head depicts a young woman with even and entirely symmetrical features. Her face is in the shape of an oval with a smooth forehead below a semicircular hairline and terminates in a small but perfectly rounded chin. Under gently arched brows her almond-shaped eyes, though missing any indication of irises or pupils, appear slightly downcast; her nose—from what is left of it—would have been slim; and the small mouth is softly embedded between the swelling flesh of her cheeks. The sensitive lips are slightly parted as if breathing or speaking. The idealized yet organic build of the face is crowned by a distinct hairstyle commonly referred to as a melon coiffure: the hair is divided into ten evenly spaced rows (“lobes”) running parallel from front to back. There they meet five additional rows starting from behind the ears and converge in a circular chignon whose center the sculptor left ill-defined. Each row is made up of diagonal strands of wavy hair; two lose S-shaped curls are decoratively pulled out before each ear; and above the forehead, the central part is accentuated by a pair of mirroring ring curls. The head belongs to a type in Greco-Roman sculpture known as the Small H…