The clue to the origin of this sculpture is the remnant of a rectangular block protruding from the back of the neck. Protrusions of this kind were used to buttress the head in full-length portraits of priests and nomarchs (local governors) from Ptolemaic Egypt.
Provenance
Paul Mallon (1884–1975), Boston and New York; purchased from Mallon by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, DC, April 1937; transferred to Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC, November 1940.
Selected Bibliography
G. Vikan, Catalogue of the Sculpture in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection from the Ptolemaic Period to the Renaissance (Washington, DC, 1995), 3–5, no. 2, plate 2A–D.
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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
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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
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