Head of a Man

This excellently worked head once belonged to a statue of a dignitary, but is now broken off at the neck. The head displays attention to detail both in the treatment of the facial features and in the careful indication of the tight curls forming the owner's wig. Remnants of a black-painted uninscribed pillar reach the middle of the back of the head. He wears a black wig of short concentric curls that covers his ears. His flesh was originally red (the typical skin color used to represent ancient Egyptian males); however only traces of red pigment remain around the edge of the face, the corners of the eyes, the sides of the neck, and on the mouth. The eyebrows and lids are carved in low relief. In addition to the extensive loss of pigment and the break at the neck, there is also damage to the nose, chin, lips, and the cheeks of this piece.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

T. W. Bateman, Derbyshire, by 1893, [mode of acquisition unknown]; F. G. Hilton Price, London, 1893, [mode of acquisition unknown] [no. 3125 in 1897 catalogue]; F. G. Hilton Price sale, Sotheby's, London, 1911; Dikran Kelekian, New York and Paris, 1912, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1912, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.