statue

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Object Type
Museum number: 1857,1220.259
Title: Series: The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; Series: Statue
Description: Marble statue from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos. It represents a female head on large scale. The head is slightly turned to the left. Seen from the front the face is oval, narrowing to the rounded chin. The wide open eyes are quite deeply set. The nose is fairly broad at the base. The lips are slightly parted. The ears are smallish and set flat against the sides of the head. Her hair is only exposed at the front, where a regular triple row of formal curls runs above her forehead, terminating in front of each ear. Each curl is terminated in a conventional spiral. Behind the curls, the rest of the hair is covered by a sakkos (close-fitting cap), which is pulled tight over the forehead and behind the ears. The treatment of the hair and the style of the cap give the head something of an Archaistic appearance.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 350BC (circa)
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Mausoleum (Halicarnassus), In the Mahomet's field, to the north of the north wall of the peribolus, and close to the northwest corner of the Mausoleum.
Materials
Dimensions: Diameter: 0.43 metres; Height: 0.48 metres; Width: 0.31 metres
Curator's comments: The portrait, possibly, may be identified as one of the female members of the Hekatomnid family.
Bibliographic references: Sculpture / Catalogue of Greek Sculpture in the British Museum (1051); Waywell 1978 / The Free-Standing Sculptures of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (30)
Location: On display (G21)
Associated objects: cast (CRM.2305)
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1857
Department: Greek and Roman
Registration number: 1857,1220.259
Conservation

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