Artwork Page for Portrait of a Young Girl

Details / Information for Portrait of a Young Girl

Portrait of a Young Girl

c. 25–30 CE

Italy, Eastern Roman Empire

Medium
bronze
Measurements
Overall: 9.7 cm (3 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1985.138
Public Domain
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Location
103 Roman
Print
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Did You Know?

The earrings this young girl wears are similar to a pair in the CMA collection (1985.174).

Description

This bronze portrait has a boyish close-cropped hairstyle and rounded forehead. The irises of the eyes are now hollow but were once inlaid with material, possibly glass. The head was likely set into a body or bust and placed inside a tomb. This portrait head is distinctive for the particular arrangement of the comma-shaped locks of hair, which resembles portraiture during the later period of the reign of Tiberius (AD 25–30), a Julio-Claudian emperor. Some scholars believe that the earrings identify the figure as an Armenian prince, while others believe this to be a portrait of a young girl.
A sculpture depicts the head of a girl cast in bronze, covered in a mottled green and brown patina with visible pitting. Short, wavy hair is rendered in textured strands. Facing toward us, large eyes sit beneath slender brows, with a straight nose above a small, closed mouth. The neck ends in a jagged, fragmented edge at the base where it has broken away from a larger figure.

Portrait of a Young Girl

c. 25–30 CE

Italy, Eastern Roman Empire

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