Late Roman Provincial Marble Head
3rd-6th century A.D. A carved marble head with large lentoid eyes and wavy hair; mounted on a custom-made stand. Cf. similar style of portraits in Bianchi Bandinelli, R., Roma, la fine dell'arte antica, Milano, 1970, figs. 340-346; Auinger, J., Aurenhammer, M., 'Antik Donemin Sonunda Ephesos Heykeltrasligi (Ephesos Sculpture at the end of the Antiquity)' in Daim, F., Ladstatter, S., Bizans Döneminde Ephesos (Ephesus in the Byzantine Period), Istanbul, 2011, pp.163-195, figs.22, 23, 24. 8.9 kg total, 37 cm high including stand (14 1/2 in.). French collection, 1960s-early 2000s.From an important Paris gallery, France. A series of portrait heads, busts and marble statues from the 5th-6th century A.D. Ephesus, show great affinity with this sculpture. This typology of portraits shows how the late Roman art progressed in the search for a characterisation. The hair is deeply worked with a drill creating a chiaroscuro and immobile mass, the face is treated with large expressive folds, making this head a magnificent expression of late Imperial Roman art.