Head fragment (sculpture)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1750
Materials
Marble
Measurements
305 mm (H)200 mm (W)190 mm (D)
Order this imageCollection
Hezlett House, County Londonderry
NT 180530
Summary
One of two recomposed fragments of an under life-size head wearing a helmet, first to second centuries AD or ca. 1750. Part of the right side of the head including the outer corner of the right eye. It features long gently waving hair pulled off the brow towards the ears. Behind the ears locks emerge from under the helmet. The helmet has a smooth dome. The conical rise of the front of the headgear and the behind the ear flap are not within the traditional Greco-Roman helmet repertoire. The helmet is closest to Phrygian headgear, and thus, suggests that an exotic foreign personage was intended; for example, an Amazon or heroes like Perseus, Paris, Orpheus, or Ganymede. Although long hair pulled back hair above the ears would suggest a female, the short corkscrews on the neck makes either sex possible. The short corkscrews are reminiscent of the locks that escape from the helmet of a late 5th BC statue of Ares (Mars) which was known as the Ares Borghese already in the 18th c. and which was taken to Paris in 1808. The confusing iconography and the small precisely rendered ears do not seem to be ancient. The top of the helmet and the nose have, however, been repaired.