Head of a Woman (400–200 BCE): Art, History and Details

Head of a Woman (400–200 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This marble bust of a woman is rendered with the soft, delicate features typical of Greek sculpture of the late fourth and early third century BCE. Her features nearly disappear into the smooth landscape of her face, each curve fading softly into the next. Her hair is held away from her forehead in a series of tight braids pulled back to a bun, now mostly lost.

Object facts

• Title: Head of a Woman
• Date: 400–200 BCE
• Culture: Greece
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 19.1 x 11.5 cm (7 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1938.426

A detail from the museum

Though this hairstyle is often associated with sculptures of Aphrodite, it was also a popular style among mortal Greek women.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Ralph King

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wunderlich, Silvia. "A Greek Marble Head." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 9 (November 1939): 146.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.