Roman Marble Head of a Veiled Goddess

1ST CENTURY A.D.

7 1/4 in. (1.47 kg total, 18.5 cm including stand).

With a palla drawn up over her hair, stepped at the rear to indicate a chignon; soft, youthful facial features with fleshy cheeks and a rounded jawline; mounted on a custom-made stand.

Provenance

with Gorny & Mosch, Munich, 21 June 2005, no.344.
Private collection, Europe.

Accompanied by copies of the relevant Gorny & Mosch catalogue pages.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13198-250132.

Literature

See Levick, B., Faustina I and II, Imperial women of the Golden Age, Oxford, 2014, for discussion; for the iconography of Vesta with veiled head, see Reinach, S., Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, Paris, 1897, pp.344, 660-661.

Footnotes

The head comes from a statue that most likely represented a matronly deity, Demeter or Hestia/Vesta, the goddess protector of the home hearth. The latter seems the most likely, as she was usually depicted (as in the Hestia Iustiniani, a prototype often replicated in the Roman era) with a covered head (velato capite), a symbol of modesty and marital virtue for the Roman matron.

CONDITION

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LOT 0157