Head of a Goddess

myminifactory

This head, which is shaped for insertion into a draped statue and in its turn and inclination has something human is an excellent Roman copy of a Greek original of the 5th Century BC and belongs to a group of works of aPeloponnesian-Argive style dating from the middle of that century, of which the best known work is a head of black basalt in Munich, one which Sieveking seems rightly to have identified as a copy of the figure of Orpheus by the Argive sculptor Dionysius (Br. Br. 698 and Arch. Anz. 41, 1926 p.334 seqq. See the Glyptotek’s No. 295). The type represented by the head No. 293 is related, but earlier. If these heads disclose a likeness to Attic works such as the Lemnian Athena (Furtwangler: Meisterwerke pis. I-III) and the Farnese Hera at Naples (Br. Br. 414), it is due to Attic influence, which is also revealed in the Peloponnesian mirror figures (e.g. Arch. Jahrb. 42, 1927 p. 150 seq., Beilage). See also No. 297.