Marble colossal head of a youth from Palmyra
The head, which is at least twice life-size and has been smoothed down on the back for attachment to a clipeus (tondo/roundel), represents a young, beardless man with long, curly hair that reaches far down his neck. It could be a youthful god, such as a Dioskouros, Helios, or, more likely, a portrait of Alexander the Great. The head probably belonged to a series of marble bust tondi that decorated the walls of Room H on the upper terrace of the Gymnasium at Pergamon. The open mouth is very sensuous, and even affects a modern audience with its lush eroticism.
Photo taken while the head was on loan to the Met Museum in New York.
Hellenistic, Pergamon (western Turkey), 2nd c. BC, marble
In the collection of the Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Marble colossal head of a youth from Palmyra
The head, which is at least twice life-size and has been smoothed down on the back for attachment to a clipeus (tondo/roundel), represents a young, beardless man with long, curly hair that reaches far down his neck. It could be a youthful god, such as a Dioskouros, Helios, or, more likely, a portrait of Alexander the Great. The head probably belonged to a series of marble bust tondi that decorated the walls of Room H on the upper terrace of the Gymnasium at Pergamon. The open mouth is very sensuous, and even affects a modern audience with its lush eroticism.
Photo taken while the head was on loan to the Met Museum in New York.
Hellenistic, Pergamon (western Turkey), 2nd c. BC, marble
In the collection of the Pergamon Museum, Berlin