Smith, Arthur H. [Editor]; British Museum <London> / Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities [Editor]: Catalogue of sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (Band 3) (London, 1904)

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UNCERTAIN FEMALE IDEAL HEADS.

1792. Ideal head to the front, with long hair, parted above
the middle of the forehead, and falling in waving curls
to each side of the face, covering the ears, and falling in
ringlets at the back of the neck. The head is tied with
a wide taenia (restored in front). The treatment of the
face is broad and simple, with sharp-cut outlines for the
eyelids, as if in bronze.

This head has been called by various names, and its
sex has been a subject of doubt. It was called Apollo
by Townley and Combe, and more recently has been
known as Dionysos. The suggestion has lately been
made (Dr. Waldstein) that the head is a copy of the Hera
of Polycleitos at Argos. For some time the head has
been regarded as Polycleitan in style. That it is femi-
nine seems highly probable, but the further steps are
questionable. The head is youthful for a Hera; the neck
could hardly be restored so as to give the head the pose
of the coin representations of the subject; there is no
suggestion of a high stephane in the present taenia, and
no evidence that it once existed over the forehead alone.
— Toumeley Coll.

Parian marble. Height of head, 10J inches. Restored : nose, end of
curl on the side of each cheek, a part of the hair and taenia
above the face. Specimens, I., pi. 23 ; Mus. Marbles, XL, pi. 5 ;
Mansell, No. 1279 ; Ellis, Town. Gall., I., p. 322 ; Graco-Roman
Guide, I., No. 140 ; Brunn, Denlmaeler, No. 83, and Vorla.uf.ger
Ber. ueber dieVeroeffentlichung der Denhmaeler (classing the head
under ' Polvcleitos and his school') ; Waldstein, Journ. of Hellen.
Studies, XXI., pi. 3, p. 30; Mahler, Pohjklet, p. 97: Amelung,
Berlin. Phil. Wochenschr., 1902, p. 276; Sauer, ibid., 1903,
p. 593.

1793. (Fig. 16.) Terminal female head, treated in a severe
style. The hair is brought from the top of the head in