Roman portrait head of a woman, Hadrianic Period, c.120-130 AD
Marble
Height: 30cm
11356 EL C
Further images
Finely carved portrait head of a noble woman with an elaborate hairstyle and soft features. She has heavily lidded eyes framed by thick but very lightly carved eyebrows that meet...
Finely carved portrait head of a noble woman with an elaborate hairstyle and soft features. She has heavily lidded eyes framed by thick but very lightly carved eyebrows that meet just above the bridge of her nose, thin lips and a smooth face, a ‘ghost’ left behind where the irises of her eyes were once painted. Elaborately styled hair is swept off her face and held in place by long braids encircling her head and twisting into a bun at the nape of her neck. Delicate, swirling tendrils escape down the sides of her face and neck. Nose and one ear restored, the other ear missing.
The undrilled eyes place this head prior to 130 AD when incised pupils became the norm in portrait heads. Yet the hairstyle was in vogue during the Hadrianic Period, meaning we can date this head fairly securely to the first ten years or so of Hadrian’s reign (r.117-138 AD).
The undrilled eyes place this head prior to 130 AD when incised pupils became the norm in portrait heads. Yet the hairstyle was in vogue during the Hadrianic Period, meaning we can date this head fairly securely to the first ten years or so of Hadrian’s reign (r.117-138 AD).
Provenance
William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, UK; acquired 1848-1868Sold at Marple & Co. and Thomas Wyatt, Lowther Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland, the Major Part of the Earl of Lonsdale’s collection, 29th April-1st May 1947, part lot 2288
Dorothea Cox, UK; acquired at the above sale
David Rowse, London, UK; acquired 2002, thence by descent
In 1947 Dorothea Cox married Ewart Bradshaw, the main Rolls Royce / Bentley agent for the north of England in the 1940s-1950s, who gifted her £50,000 as a wedding present. She subsequently bought many objects and antiquities with this sum, including lot 2288 at the Lowther Castle sale.
