Head of a Woman (Front)

The head and upper neck of a woman. She has full, protruding lips and a right eye that is larger than the left. The hair around the face is arranged in small spiral curls: short around the forehead and long around the sides of the face. Use of the drill is evident to add dimension and depth to the curls and these cover most of the ears. The rest of the hair is arranged in a melon coiffure, with thick rows pulled back from the front of the head. At the front, a braid crosses perpendicularly across the central two rows. The twelve rows of hair are articulated as thick ridges. Strands of hair cross these perpendicularly and are rendered as undulating shallow ridges. At the back of the head, the rows are pulled into a tight plait, partially broken. On either side large, loose spiral curls, deeply drilled, fall down the front of the shoulders. The marble has a grayish-brown patina and the nose and part of the hair are damaged. Modern chips are missing from the back of the head.