Portrait Head of a Young Woman

From the Getty Museum record

The head, complete with its entire neck, was carved to be inserted into the separate body of a full-length statue. It is the portrait of a young, i.e. still teen-aged, woman, holding her head high on a long and slender neck. Her face is heart-shaped with a high forehead, and the elongated slopes of the cheeks lead to a small, slightly pointed chin. Her large, wide open eyes are framed by softly rounded eyelids; iris and pupils indicated by incisions and deep drill holes, respectively. The nose is straight, with only the slightest convex curve. It appears short like that of a child whose features are still developing, with the extended height of her upper lip a prominent detail of her countenance. Finally, the petite mouth is modeled with the utmost subtlety, particularly evident on the lower lip. The way she wears her hair is simple: parted in the center, long, wavy strands converge in a bun now missing but once placed low in the back of the head, excluding only a couple of wispy tufts too short to be captured. A noticeable feature of the sculpture are the four marble pieces of hair carved separately and then attached to the head: the crown, the bun, and two segments of hair overlapping the ears. Two of these attachments—the crown and the hair above the right ear—are still in place, the other ones missing. Where the bun once was, the remains of the joinery are now visible: a rectangular tenon surrounded by a carefully flattened circular surface prepared with strokes of the point chisel to better adhere to the mortar or cement securing the attachment. The piece above the left ear, being lighter, seems to have relied only on the ancient adhesive.