Idealized Head (50 BCE–100 CE): Art, History and Details

Idealized Head (50 BCE–100 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This head combines an idealizing style with the serene expression that was characteristic of early Classical sculpture in Greece. Though copies of Greek masterpieces were popular in Rome during the late Republic and early empire, Romans also created many new sculptures that emulated the Classical style, which they felt conveyed a sense of the divine. This statue was probably one such piece, borrowing iconographically and stylistically from various Greek examples.

Object facts

• Title: Idealized Head
• Date: 50 BCE–100 CE
• Culture: Italy, Roman
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: dolomite
• Dimensions: Overall: 21 cm (8 1/4 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1924.125

A detail from the museum

This head could represent a woman or goddess, or a youthful god such as Apollo.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Leonard C. Hanna

Further reading listed by the museum

• Howard, Rossiter. "A Fifth Century Greek Head" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11, no. 2 (February 1924): 27-46.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.

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.