Head of a Statue of Hygieia
Anonymous Master
Roman, 2nd century A.D., after Greek original of the 4th century B.C.
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Carved from Greek marble and formerly interpreted as a portrait of the poetess Sappho, this head once belonged to a large-than-life-size statue of the goddess Hygieia (Salus), the body of which was worked from a separate block of stone. Dating from the second century CE, it was made after a lost, probably bronze original from the third quarter of the fourth century BCE (Hygieia, ‘Beirut’ type), of which the sculptor is unknown. The tip of the nose is a later restoration. The head was acquired by Prince Johann II von Liechtenstein from the Italian art dealer Stefano Bardini in 1897 and first mentioned in the literature by the archaeologist Walther Amelung in 1903.
- Material/technique
- marble
- Measurements
- 43 × 34 × 24 cm
- Acquisition
- acquired in 1897 by Prince Johann II von Liechtenstein
- Artists/makers/authors
- Anonymous Master
- Inventory number
- SK 59
- Provenance
- acquired in 1897 by Prince Johann II von Liechtenstein
- Iconography
- Ancient World , Portrait of a woman
E. Schmidt, Silanion, der Meister des Platonbildnisses, in: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Institutes 47 1932, S. 260-277
Lauffray, Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth IV 1940, S. 27f., Abb. Taf. IV
G.M.A. Richter, The portraits of the Greeks I, London 1965, S. 70ff.
H. von Heintze, Das Bildnis der Sappho, Mainz/Berlin 1966, S. 21f.
Oskar Sandner, Ausst.-Kat. Meisterwerke der Plastik aus Privatsammlungen im Bodenseegebiet, Bregenz 1967, S. 42-43, Nr. 53, Abb. 6