This small head was once part of an architectural support known as a caryatid. Found in the architecture of the ancient Mediterranean world, caryatids are sculpted in the form of a female figure. These monumental sculptures serve in place of columns to support a building’s entablature.
Provenance
Michel Roussos, Athens and Paris, to 1939; on consignment at Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York (inventory X1206/P15135); purchased from Brummer Gallery by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, January 12, 1939; transferred to Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC, November 1940.
Selected Bibliography
G. M. A. Richter, Catalogue of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection (Cambridge, MA, 1956), 10, no. 5, plate 3D–E.
More Exhibit Items
Roman copy of Greek original of 2nd century BCE–3rd century CE; marble; 19.7 cm (7 3/4 in.). BZ.1939.1
Romano-Arabian, 2nd century; bronze; 102 × 28 × 106 cm (40 3/16 × 11 × 41 3/4 in.). BZ.1938.12
Rome, date uncertain; bronze; 144 × 25.8 × 14.8 cm (56 11/16 ×10 3/16 × 5 13/16 in.). BZ.1940.22
Late Roman, 3rd–4th century; porphyry; 40 × 45 cm (15 3/4 × 17 11/16 in.). BZ.1941.5
Ptolemaic Egyptian, late 2nd–early 1st century BCE; limestone; 31.5 × 17.5 × 19.5 cm (12 3/8 × 6 7/8 in. × 7 11/16 in.). BZ.1937.13
Roman, 1st century, copy of Greek original of 3rd century BCE; marble; 34 × 17.5 × 23 cm (13 3/8 × 6 7/8 × 9 1/16 in.). BZ.1946.2
Persian, 486–465 BCE; limestone; 50 × 30 × 10.2 cm (19 11/16 × 11 13/16 × 4 in.). BZ.1932.4
Persian, 486–465 BCE; limestone; 37.5 × 67.5 × 9 cm (14 3/4 × 26 9/16 × 3 9/16 in.). BZ.1931.1
Late Roman, 3rd-4th century; mosaic; 144.8 × 94 cm (57 × 37 in.). BZ.1967.44.2a
Late Roman, late 2nd or 3rd century; mosaic; 167.5 × 264.5 cm (65 15/16 × 104 1/8 in.). BZ.1940.64.