DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15101#0045
PLATE XII.
BUST OF AN ASIATIC FEMALE.
Bust of a female or effeminate person, wearing a cap, with a veil
thrown over it, and hanging down on each side of the face upon
the shoulders. The chin, throat, and breast are also closely wrapt
in thin and semitransparent drapery. The face, like that of the
youthful Bacchus, partakes of the beauty of both sexes.
This bust has been explained as that of Adonis, who is supposed,
from the peculiarity of the drapery, to be represented during the
period of the year which he passed in Hades; an idea which is in
some degree confirmed by the fact that Jupiter, when pourtrayed
as the Ruler of Hades, is often found with a veil. There is, how-
ever, a difficulty in accepting this attribution, arising from the
character of the features, and from the formally-parted hair,
which seem both to indicate a female subject.
The head-dress is essentially of Eastern origin, and the cap is
analogous to that which is considered peculiar to the Phrygian
and Persian races. The veil appears as if it had just been lifted
up, and the antique portion of the drapery exhibits some resem-
blance to that of the so-called Venus Architis in the British Mu-
seum. Similar caps may be seen on the head of Atys in the same
collection—on the Ganymede at Paris — on representations of
Amazons on painted vases—on figures in Mithraic groups_and
on the Persians who are introduced in the great mosaic from
Pompeii, supposed to represent one of the battles of Alexander
BUST OF AN ASIATIC FEMALE.
Bust of a female or effeminate person, wearing a cap, with a veil
thrown over it, and hanging down on each side of the face upon
the shoulders. The chin, throat, and breast are also closely wrapt
in thin and semitransparent drapery. The face, like that of the
youthful Bacchus, partakes of the beauty of both sexes.
This bust has been explained as that of Adonis, who is supposed,
from the peculiarity of the drapery, to be represented during the
period of the year which he passed in Hades; an idea which is in
some degree confirmed by the fact that Jupiter, when pourtrayed
as the Ruler of Hades, is often found with a veil. There is, how-
ever, a difficulty in accepting this attribution, arising from the
character of the features, and from the formally-parted hair,
which seem both to indicate a female subject.
The head-dress is essentially of Eastern origin, and the cap is
analogous to that which is considered peculiar to the Phrygian
and Persian races. The veil appears as if it had just been lifted
up, and the antique portion of the drapery exhibits some resem-
blance to that of the so-called Venus Architis in the British Mu-
seum. Similar caps may be seen on the head of Atys in the same
collection—on the Ganymede at Paris — on representations of
Amazons on painted vases—on figures in Mithraic groups_and
on the Persians who are introduced in the great mosaic from
Pompeii, supposed to represent one of the battles of Alexander