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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.136
Title
Head of a Young Man (?) of Barbarian Origin, in the Pergamene tradition
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
100 BCE
Period
Hellenistic period, Late
Culture
Greek?
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/292212

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Marble from the Greek islands
Dimensions
8 cm (3 1/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Museum, 1920.

Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
Accession Year
1920
Object Number
1920.44.136
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
45

Head of a Young Man(?) of Barbarian Origin

The face is battered, and the surfaces are worn.

The masses of hair around the forehead were treated in summary, impressionistic fashion. Traces of a fillet around the ample locks might suggest that this head is the ideal presentation of a prince from one of the nations on the fringes of the Greek world, perhaps in Asia Minor. Despite the damage, the head conveys much of the strength and nobility of the subject.

A slightly larger portrait, termed Hellenistic and related to the heroic iconography of Alexander the Great in Egypt, was found in the area of ancient Aquileia in Northern Italy (Scinari, 1972, p. 57, no. 162).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 61, no. 45

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu