Head of an Antonine Woman (Close to Faustina Minor)

mid-2nd century A.D.

Medium

Italian marble, fine-grained

Dimensions

40 × 22.1 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-238053

The head and neck of a Roman woman. The neck is long and slender and the base is worked for insertion into a statue. The head is turned to the right and the chin slightly lifted. The soft lips of a small mouth are slightly parted and the eyes gaze upwards and to the right. The pupils are drilled and the lacrimal caruncle is incised underneath heavy lids. The hair is parted in the center and falls in thick, undulating waves around the face, pulled into a spiral bun at the back of the head. The hair on the top of the head is rendered less plastically with numerous subtle ridges. The very top of the head is a flat, sloping plane, roughly worked with a large rectangular depression running to the left edge. Curly tendrils separate from the mass of hair to fall down the neck at the back. The hair style follows he fashion set by the empress Faustina the Younger, wife of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled AD 161–180) and mother of Commodus (ruled AD 180–192). The stone is covered with a yellow patina with root markings on the face and neck. Incrustation occurs along the hair and back of the neck. Largely intact, there is only some damage to the nose.