Head of veiled female
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
399 BC - 300 BC
Materials
Marble
Measurements
250 mm (H); 200 mm (W); 7 mm (D)
Place of origin
Greece
Order this imageCollection
Biddulph Grange Garden, Staffordshire
NT 104582
Summary
Head of veiled female from a grave relief, classical Athens, 4th century BC. A Fine classical sculpture of a young female in white marble.
Full description
Head of veiled female from a grave relief, classical Athens, 4th century BC. A Fine classical sculpture of a young female in white marble. The back of the head has been broken off in two different, horizontal planes. The top of the head is unworked. The neck is cut horizontally at the top Pupils have been drawn in pencil. The surface is heavily worn. The head was fully finished (except for the top). The hair is rendered with a combination of drill and flat chisel but all traces of tooling have been removed. The head depicts a young full-faced woman who has long hair, wears a veil, and turns to her right. The style, size, and workmanship of the head suggest that it once belonged to an Attic (Greek from the area of Athens) funerary stele of the fourth century BC. These reliefs featured from two to four portrait figures and the finest examples were worked in very high relief. At Biddulph Grange this particular head was assuredly intended as Eve, the counterpart to Adam, displayed on the left side of the wall at the same height. The turn of the head is distinctly visible when one looks from the bottom upward; the curve of the neck and the bulge of the chin are not aligned. This turn of the head is characteristic for a figure in an Attic grave relief; the figures mainly turned to look at another. Other characteristics of the head that are typical of a fourth century relief are the round symmetrical face, the drapery sitting behind the first 10 cm of hair, the centrally parted hair that frames the brow as a triangular gable, and the different direction of the locks of hair on the left and right sides of the face. On the proper left, the locks of hair spring off the face in a fan-like manner and then bend backwards sharply, forming almost a shelf. On the proper right, the side of the head turned away from the viewer and toward the back plane, the locks fall downwards and are pushed backwards more flatly. The larger and deeper reliefs belong to the second half of the fourth century. These reliefs were an essential part of the visual culture of Classical Athens and made their way as collected items to Italy already during the Roman Empire. One of six sculptural fragments (104579-104584) carefully set into the wall on the left of the entrance to the Geological Gallery of Biddulph Grange which opened in 1862. The foyer area, the left wall of which they decorated, preceded the gallery. In the gallery, the seven days of Creation were demonstrated one by one, on the wall to the visitor’s left, by means of geological evidence, rocks and fossils. In both the entrance and in the gallery, the objects were set into the wall with deliberate illustrative purpose. In both the entrance and the gallery, the objects are stone and somehow marked, and through their ancient markings demonstrate the truth of the creation story. In the entrance wall, five of the objects were carved in the Greco-Roman period; the other object was carved later but the creators of the gallery may not have known that. The objects set into the gallery wall illustrate a geological approach that was intended to confirm scientifically the Christian understanding of creation. The objects set into the entrance were a stone and sculptural re-enactment of the traditional approach to the Christian creation scene which the gallery would confirm scientifically. In the Biddulph Grange wall, a bearded paternal figure (104580) peers out and over a scene below; the actual object, a head of Goliath with Renaissance origins, stands for God the Father. Below him, to the left and right, are male and female heads (104581 & 104582). The male head is bearded with a lined and tried face, in fact the head probably of Herakles from the Roman period. Herakles, the mortal son of Zeus, who had to struggle through 12 labours to redeem himself and get entry to heaven, is a brilliant choice for Adam. One is left to wonder whether this choice was coincidence or whether the creators of the gallery were extremely well-versed. The pendant to this male head, Adam, is female head is modestly veiled with symmetrical ageless features; she is intended at Biddulph Grange to be Eve. In reality, she is the head of the ideal woman from a classical Greek tombstone. Again the choice of an image that was made as a representation of the most appropriate qualities of a demure and modest wife for an image of Eve is exceptionally well-conceived. Both of these choices would seem to confirm the longevity of the Christian story; that is, even in societies where the story was not espoused, the fundamental concepts behind it existed. Below these two human heads, on the left and right, are fragments from Roman sarcophagi which show animals and their natural plight in life. On the left (104583), a wild boar is hunted by men and on the right (104584), a noble horse is taken down by a ravenous lion. These are the marvellous creatures which God created and which are in a natural state of conflict with other beings. These images were displayed on Roman sarcophagi precisely because they represented the simplicity of nature, both its natural beauty and cruelty. At the bottom of the scene, in antithesis to God the Father, is a dark piece of porphyry, carved to represent the mouth and beard of a man (104579). Its interpretation is less clear. It may stand for the solid basis that God created for his creatures. It is a magnificent stone which in its fragmentary state is virtually devoid of animation. The space of the wall furthermore may have been punctuated by a lamp at the centre of these sculptural fragments. A decorative stone bracket projects from the centre and must have carried some object. A lamp or torch placed on the bracket would have given illuminated the dark passage and represented the light of God. All of the sculptures are carefully chosen fragments; they each have a specific aesthetic and compositional value. They would seem to have been purchased for this purpose and may even have been broken (with the exception of 104579 into their current shape for this purpose. The composer has selected with attention and each of the fragments (with perhaps the exception of 104580 is attractive and well-carved. Symbolically the reuse of objects from “ancient” cultures suggests the antiquity and venerable veracity of the Creation scene. (Exert from J. Lenaghan 2017 "Biddulph Grange. Report in Wall left of entrance to gallery")
Provenance
The fragment probably dates to the fourth century AD and must have belonged to large frieze or relief. These reliefs were an essential part of the visual culture of Classical Athens and made their way as collected items to Italy already during the Roman Empire. Originally from Geological Gallery.