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Portrait head of a man with curly hair
Roman Provincial?
Imperial Period, Early Flavian
A.D. 69–79
Medium/Technique
Marble, Dolomitic from the Greek island of Thasos
Dimensions
Height: 31 cm (12 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Horace L. Mayer
Accession Number63.2760
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 344; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 115 (additional published references).
DescriptionThis portrait head is probably from a statue. Despite the damages, a lively sense of the sitter's pleasant yet shrewd personality comes through to us, the broad forehead with its wrinkles and curly hair, and the little chin set amid folds of flesh. The face and surrounding hair have caught the new Flavian restlessness in sculptural style; the back half of the head still manifests the flat, tightly curled hair of a Julio-Claudian court portrait. This portrait, then, is a creation of the decade when the Flavian styles of sculptural richness were being formed and first exploited.
Nose, chin, and a piece at the side of the neck have been broken away or damaged. The ears have suffered in a similar fashion. The surfaces are worn and weathered, perhaps both in antiquity and in a recent setting. There are remains of a black deposit in the hair and pitting on the face.
Scientific Analysis:
Marble has been scientifically tested with X-Ray Diffraction and determined to be Dolomitic.
Harvard Lab No. HI111: Isotope ratios - delta13C +3.58 / delta18O -3.09, Attribution - Thasos-Cape Vathy, Justification - Dolomitic by XRD.
Nose, chin, and a piece at the side of the neck have been broken away or damaged. The ears have suffered in a similar fashion. The surfaces are worn and weathered, perhaps both in antiquity and in a recent setting. There are remains of a black deposit in the hair and pitting on the face.
Scientific Analysis:
Marble has been scientifically tested with X-Ray Diffraction and determined to be Dolomitic.
Harvard Lab No. HI111: Isotope ratios - delta13C +3.58 / delta18O -3.09, Attribution - Thasos-Cape Vathy, Justification - Dolomitic by XRD.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: said to be in the Somzée Collection; by 1962 with Mario Barsanti, Rome, Italy (acquired from Renê Withofs of Brussels); 1962: purchased by Horace L. Mayer from Mario Barsanti; August 11, 1962: loaned by Horace L. Mayer to MFA (as 158.62); year-end gift of Horace L. Mayer to MFA, December 26, 1963