Getty Museum

Head of a Child

Date

300–200 B.C.

Medium

Terracotta with clay slip

Culture

Greek (South Italian, Tarantine)

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

This head, once part of a statue, is tilted slightly to the left. It features a full face with a broad forehead, small eyes, wide, well-shaped lips and a smiling expression. Fine locks of hair adhere closely to the cranial structure, leaving the ears uncovered and turned outward. The hair at the nape of the neck is rendered conventionally with incisions in parallel waves, parted in the center. There is a hole above the left ear. Representations of children are attested in votive contexts of Magna Graecia in the Hellenistic period, where they are connected to cult activities relating to the fertility of crops and the cycle of life.

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