The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Portrait Bust of a Girl

Portrait Bust of a Girl

c. 250–75 CE
marble
Overall: 52.1 cm (20 1/2 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1951.288
Location: 103 Roman

Did You Know?

This portrait of a young girl was thought for many years to represent a boy.

Description

This portrait bust depicts a young child, perhaps three or four years old, with soft, fleshy cheeks and delicate features. The neck is slight, the skull relatively large and round, with closely cropped hair indicated by fine incisions. Although this hairstyle may appear masculine today, the child wears a high-belted chiton, a long garment usually worn by women and girls. Together with the rope running diagonally across the chest, this suggests a female funerary portrait, perhaps showing the deceased in the guise of the huntress Diana.
  • Count Raffaele de Sarzana, Rome
    Count Raffaele de Sarzana, Rome
  • Wunderlich, Silvia A. "A Roman Portrait Bust of a Child." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 38, no. 9 (1951): 219-23. www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 41 archive.org
    Carter, Martha L. Classical Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961. Mentioned: p. 15; Reproduced: plate 21 archive.org
    Sheard, Wendy Stedman, and Phyllis Williams Lehmann. Antiquity in the Renaissance. Northampton, Mass: Smith College Museum of Art, 1978. Cat. 67.
    Wood, Susan. "An Enigmatic Roman Portrait." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 8 (1981): 286-302. www.jstor.org
    Fittschen, K. "Mädchen, nicht Knaben: Zwei Kinderbüsten in Cleveland und Wellesley," Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts Roemische Abteilung, Band 99 (1992), 301-305, Taf. 80-86.
    Kleiner, Diana E. E., and Susan B. Matheson. I, Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Art Gallery, 1996. P. 198, cat. 148.
    Backe-Dahmen, Annika. Innocentissima aetas: römische Kindheit im Spiegel literarischer, rechtlicher und archäologischer Quellen des 1. bis 4. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. Mainz am Rhein: Von Zabern, 2006. P. 201, F102, Taf. 91.
    Stephanidou-Tiveriou, Theodosia. Die lokalen Sarkophage aus Thessaloniki. Ruhpolding : Verlag Franz Philipp Rutzen; [Wiesbaden]: In Kommission bei Harrassowitz, 2014. Mentioned: p. 80, 291
    Sánchez Galera, José María, and Gregorio Luri Medrano. La edad de las nueces: los niños en el Imperio Romano. Madrid : Ediciones Encuentro S.A., 2021. Mentioned: p. 31; reproduced: p. 29, fig. 1
  • I Claudia, Women in Ancient Rome. Yale University Art Gallery (organizer) (September 6-December 1, 1996); San Antonio Museum of Art (December 20, 1996-March 2, 1997); North Carolina Museum of Art (April 6-June 15, 1997).
    Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984).
    Antiquity in the Renaissance. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (organizer) (April 6-June 6, 1978).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait Bust of a Girl|url=false|author=|year=c. 250–75 CE|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.288