Statue

White marble, fine crystalline texture. Life-sized. Head broken off at base of neck. End of nose and center upper lip slightly chipped. Front edges mantle chipped. Hair-tip glued in place. Portrait, with back of head in short mantle. Undersides of mantle left roughly picked. Longer on R side and swinging forward, causing deep pockets of shadow. Long neck leans gently to her left and turns to left. Heavy loose hair is parted in middle brushed simply past temples in wavy chiseling, lends texture in contrast to smoothed features. Right brow and eye higher than left. Eyes framed by thin lids; hole in tearduct. Refined straight nose above small pursed lips with drill holes in corners. Face idealized by removal of surface detail. Based on Praxitelean head type, and Hellenistic veiling. Amanda Claridge, March 12, 1979: "Not ancient. Such would be beyond the bounds of plausibility. Shape of cutting at base of neck wrong for draped statue. Sharp edge of eyebrows unprecedented in Roman sculpture. Perhaps not intended originally as a forgery. Wonders if it could have been a model in a Neoclassical sculptor's workshop in the late 18th or early 19th century."