/internal/media/dispatcher/785539/resize%25253Aformat%25253Dthumbnail;jsessionid=9B7111EF75C1E2BD807F434CE9AC5064Portrait head of a man with curly hairA.D. 69–79Height: 31 cm (12 3/16 in.)Marble, Dolomitic from the Greek island of ThasosGift of Horace L. Mayer63.27600This 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.Sculpture31.000000000015133901