Getty Museum

Head of a Bearded Man

Date

about 440 B.C.

Medium

Marble

Culture

Greek

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

Carved fully in the round, this under life-size head depicts a mature man with short curly hair and a full beard. The hair is brushed back from the face, and full in front of the ears. An indentation at the back may indicate that a fillet was originally tied about the head. The mouth is closed with thick lips, and the eyes are slightly rounded with thick upper and lower lids. The ear channels, however, are carved differently, using a series of drilled holes to form the cavities. His mustache is carved separately from his beard with long ends that extend below the mouth. The beard closely follows the jaw line and ends at the neck. The head may have belonged to a figure that was once part of an architectural context. The style of the head is Attic, and contemporary with the sculpture of the Parthenon on the Acropolis, so perhaps it is to be associated with some smaller Athenian building of the time. However, the markedly weathered surface on top of the head suggests that it comes from a statue fully exposed to the elements, perhaps a herm.

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