Getty Museum

Head of a Girl from a Grave Naiskos

Date

about 320 B.C.

Medium

Marble

Culture

Greek

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

Head of a girl originally from a figure in a grave naiskos. The marble has been tested as Pentelic. A flat area at the back of the head would have rested against the back panel of the architectural structure. The head is carved asymmetrically, probably to compensate for the optical illusion created by its display above the heads of viewers. The left side of her face appears distorted and flaccid compared to the right. The girl's roughly sketched curly hair is divided into sections and pulled back into a braid wound about her head, a modified version of the melon coiffure. The ears have drill holes for the attachment of separately made earrings, now missing. The girl was likely a subsidiary figure in the larger composition of the naiskos.

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