Head from a statuette

The head, of translucent pale green glass, shows a shaven skull with distinctive curve at the occiput, but there is no trace of a back-pillar. It is broken diagonally at the neck and the surface is heavily pitted as a result of surface decay. Iridescence is present in places, chiefly on the right side of the neck. The chin is fairly deep.

Owing to the loss of detail, it is impossible to say how this piece was originally made, but it was presumably cast in a mould and not worked in the cold state. It may have formed part of a composite statue with a draped body in another material. For a discussion of sculpture in glass in the Ptolemaic period, see Cooney (1960: 37 ff.; and 1976: 153-4).

Entry from Steven Hooper (ed.), Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).