Italy, Roman / c. 100–200 CE
Head of Aphrodite
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Head of Aphrodite as sculpture (Italy, Roman · c. 100–200 CE).
The elaborate hairstyle, arranged in a bow atop the head, identifies this figure as Aphrodite.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as marble.
The museum's collection notes: With idealized features including a straight nose, small mouth with thick lips, and a hairstyle best known from the so-called Capitoline Venus (now in Rome), this head likely belonged to a full-scale statue of the goddess of love. Like the Capitoline Venus and many other sculptures of the Roman period, it probably showed the goddess nude and bathing, harking back to the groundbreaking sculpture of Aphrodite at Knidos, carved by Praxiteles in the mid-fourth century BCE.
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The Cleveland Museum of ArtHead of AphroditeOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.