3-037-332 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Head of a Young Woman (Small Herculaneum Woman type), 25 B.C.-A.D. 25. Additional Info: The head depicts a young woman with even and entirely symmetrical features. Her face is in the shape of an oval with a smooth forehead below a semicircular hairline and terminates in a small but perfectly rounded chin. The head belongs to a type in Greco-Roman sculpture known as the Small Herculaneum Woman, which is named after two draped statues in the Dresden State Art Museums, that were discovered about 1711 at Herculaneum and were among the very first discoveries from the ancient city. This statue type of a draped woman is ubiquitous in Roman sculpture and was employed in the vast majority of cases to be equipped with individual contemporary portrait heads. Only three statues are known that preserve the draped body together with the Greek-style head featuring the melon coiffure. The image likely originated in Greek sculpture of the late 300s B.C.E. and may have represented a priestess, poet, civic benefactor, in her own right or as a family member of one, that was honored with a public statue.