Provenance:

Private Collection, France, 1970-1980.

Private Collection, United Kingdom.

Ward Gallery, New York; where acquired by the present owner, 16 April 2014.

Showing an idealized youth, whether athlete or hero, this finely sculpted head draws on Late Classical precedents, echoing the styles pioneered by Skopas and Lysippos. Closely cropped curls emerge low on his troubled brow in virile tufts, with a gaze emanating from deep beneath. With slightly parted lips and pivoting slightly upon a powerful neck, this individual is no nubile youth but rather exudes power, both physiological and psychological, not unlike the portraiture of Alexander the Great with his famous pathos. 

Relevant stylistic comparisons include Roman copies of Skopas’ famous Meleager (such as the head at the Vatican (Musei Vaticani, Inv. no. 1570) and that master’s surviving pedimental sculpture from the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. The proportions and sense of brooding were taken up by Athenian sculptors for likenesses of youths, including, with an informative example in New York thought to have belonged to a grave stele (Metropolitan Museum, Inv. no. 11.91.1). Relatively rare for surviving works in marble, the youth’s eyes were originally inlaid in contrasting materials which would have enlivened the youth’s gaze to an unnerving extent. Roman-period marbles with inlaid eyes famously include the “weeping” goddess from the Athenian Akropolis (Akropolis Museum, Inv. no. EAM 117). 

Height with stand 37 cm (14 5/8 inches).

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