Getty Museum

Head of a Woman

Date

about 400 B.C.

Medium

Marble

Culture

Greek

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

This head of a female figure has a softly contoured, oval-shaped face. The hair is thick and wavy and held in place by an opisthosphendone (a headband formed from a piece of fabric that is broad in the middle and narrow at the ends), but with prominent bunches of loose hair over the ears. Hair on top of the head falls in vertical strands from the crown. The almond-shaped left eye is slightly larger than the right, but both are equally defined, with thick eyelids. Both ears are fully carved with depressions formed by a drill. The top of the head is flat and smoothed, either to fit into an architectural frame or for a join with a separate piece of stone. The strongly asymmetrical face suggests that in the original orientation, the right side was the most visible. The style and workmanship of the head is comparable to sculptures produced in Peloponnesian centers such as Bassae, Patras and Mazi. The style bears some signs of Athenian influences, but has its own independent character.

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