Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait Bust of a Girl

Date

c. 250–75 CE

Medium

marble

Culture

Italy, Roman

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This portrait bust depicts a young child, perhaps three or four years old, with soft, fleshy cheeks and delicate features. The neck is slight, the skull relatively large and round, with closely cropped hair indicated by fine incisions. Although this hairstyle may appear masculine today, the child wears a high-belted chiton , a long garment usually worn by women and girls. Together with the rope running diagonally across the chest, this suggests a female funerary portrait, perhaps showing the deceased in the guise of the huntress Diana. This portrait of a young girl was thought for many years to represent a boy.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.