Tondo
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1700 - 1800
Materials
Fine grained white marble and Carrara statuary marble
Measurements
550 x 430 x 25 mm
Collection
Farnborough Hall, Warwickshire
NT 831161.1
Summary
One of a pair of tondos with an ancient female head. Right profile of portrait head of a woman set into 18th century medallion. Third-quarter of the second century. Right profile of ancient head on non-pertinent ancient bust set into modern medallion. Only the head and throat are ancient. The medallion and the bust are made from the same piece of marble and are modern. The tip of the nose is also a modern restoration. The head has been cut lengthwise in order to make two modern medallions. Either the cutting is not perfectly centred or the knot of hair at the back was not in the middle of the head. This right profile has been heavily cleaned and has lost all of its original surface. Moreover, both the eyes and the mouth have been blurred. The hairline over the brow and at the temple also has been altered. Behind the ear the hair has been reworked. This has changed some of the locks of hair over the brow. The pupil has been lightly marked with two drill points, this forming a 'pelta' shape. The pupil is closer to the outer corner of the eye, meaning that the head looked to its right.
Provenance
The portrait head depicts a woman who wears the same hairstyle as Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus Aurelius, who was married to Lucius Verus. It should thus date to c. AD 160-170. The head however has been sawed into two halves, and each half has been mounted on an 18th century medallion with a naked bust area. Although heads in the round were on rare occasions re-used in a relief context in antiquity, it is more common in the world of the art market of the 17th century and thereafter. It was an elegant way to recycle (and re-new) heads, which may have been badly damaged (cf. the example of Lucius Verus also at Farnborough). Thus, an eighteenth century sculptor could make money on a badly preserved antiquity. Moreover, the use of one side of a head in profile mounted on a medallion recalled in a lovely large-scale the elegant images of cameos and gems and had the desirable potential for creating pendant pieces. This portrait of a woman is a clear example of a re-working of an ancient object to suit the context and desires of a modern public.