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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1922.72
Title
Head of a Young Girl
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
head, sculpture
Date
4th century BCE
Period
Classical period, Late, to Early Hellenistic
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/292323

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pentelic marble
Dimensions
18.4 cm (7 1/4 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of L. Melano Rossi
Accession Year
1922
Object Number
1922.72
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
27 Greek

Head of a Young Girl

The nose and the lower left cheek are broken and rubbed away. The surfaces are very weathered. The hair behind the ears and at the back of the head is finished roughly, the hair above and in front of the ears less so but still rough.

The young girl has her plaited hair arranged in a low knot around the crown of her head. The symmetrical waves above the forehead are divided in the center and are pulled back tightly above the ears. This head brings to mind the statues of young girls of the fourth century BC found in the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron in Attica (Orlandos, 1958, pp. 36-37, figs. 38-39; Ruhfel, 1984, pp. 221-222, pl. 91). Similar statues have been found at Delphi and elsewhere in Greece (Collignon, 1911, pp. 192-196, especially fig. 122, Delphi). A head of a young girl from a funerary monument has the hair arranged in similar fashion and has been dated after 350 BC and before the curtailment of monumental grave monuments in Attica, 317-316 BC. The hair is worked slightly more decisively and the face is slightly more pronounced. The head was bought in Athens by Ludwig Curtius in 1906 and is now in the Royal Ontario Museum (The Royal Ontario Museum, 1983, p. 22, no. s-28).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Ancient Greece: Life and Art, The Newark Museum (Newark, NJ, 1980), no. 102, "Head of Arctos"
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 42, no. 27

Exhibition History

  • Ancient Greece: Life and Art, The Newark Museum, 02/02/1980 - 03/16/1980

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu