Bust of a Roman Matron
Roman
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
Unknown
Materials
Fine-grained Greek marble
Measurements
730 x 445 x 230 mm
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486365
Summary
Fine-grained Greek marble, Bust of a Matron, the head of which may be dated to the middle Antonine period whilst the shoulder bust of Trajanic shape is antique but does not belong. The head is turned to the right with the gaze directed upward. The face is somewhat square with a small and determined chin. The hair is parted in the centre and arranged in four flat curls on either side of the face with the rest of the hair drawn to the back of the head and arranged in a high plait on the crown. Four small locks escape on to the nape of the neck and two tiny curls fall in front of the ears.
Provenance
?Collected by Charles, 2nd Earl of Egremont, thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72), arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M. Treasury.
Marks and inscriptions
59 (painted on front of socle)
Makers and roles
Roman, sculptor
References
Wyndham 1915 Margaret Wyndham, Catalogue of the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Possession of Lord Leconfield, The Medici Society, 1915, p. 95-96