Roman Marble Head Fragment

Possibly depicting Sophocles

Circa 1st - 2nd Century AD

Carved and polished marble

Height: 16 cm

Provenance

Collection of Danish sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau (1816-1883)

Sold at the Jerichau estate sale in 1884, lot 47-50

Subsequently with Danish philosopher Prof. Claudius Wilkens (1844-1929)

Danish private collection, by inheritance.

This fine Roman marble head preserves the proper left side of the face of a middle-aged man, with broad nose, soft lips, and bearded chin. The short beard and sideburns have been finely carved with a flat chisel, to render the soft, wavy strands of hair. The cheekbone, undereye, and nasolabial folds have been delicately modelled in the marble by a skilled hand. In a letter from 1975, the former director of Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, suggested that the head could depict the Ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles.

£35,000