Female Bust

Female head. One of the most popular type of the archaistic style recognised in the oval face, the rounded cheeks, the broad strapping chin, thick lipped mouth with corners raised in the archaic smile and mouth slightly parted to reveal teeth. The hair is in think long locks combed down from the top of the crown into a loose shag that reaches the upper back and in the front in a fringe that frames the face. Three projections punctuate the fringe and they are made by hair plaits that have been folded over themselves. A band secures the folds and there are rounded flaps around the ears. The Ince head is different to other similar examples in the narrower eyes and the replacement of a crown with a hair band. The details are not as sharply linear but this could be because of harsh cleaning. Bartman believed that the piece is in the archaistic style rather than a product of East Greece as Ashmole had originallly proposed and that it was created for the Roman market and that it belonged to the Bacchic circle as confirmed by a number of Roman reliefs that depict theatre masks. There is a literary reference to the piece as a companion to the Herm of Bacchus 59.148.127 and because of their stylistic similarities the two head may have been indeed accompanied each other. Bartman proposed that the pairing of a male and female head could have been to illustrate devotional love and adding a sanctified aura to gardens and other spaces.