2nd-3rd century AD. A head from a statuette of a maenad, the eyes and eyebrows well detailed, the nose partially preserved, the forehead surrounded by a band (taenia), the hair dressed in orderly waves, held back by a crown of ivy dividing the locks and creating a raised bunch of flowers with hair falling over the brow; mounted on a ctom-made display stand. The head presents similarities with the head of a maenad in Altemps Palace, Rome, and with the head of a maenad in mée Saint-Raymond de Touloe (inventory no.RA37b"). 195 grams, 71mm high (225 grams, 90cm including stand) (2 3/4 (3 1/2)"). From the late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister; from her collection formed 1960s-1990s. The head can be dated to the second half of the 2nd century AD or the first half of the 3rd century AD. Maenads were the female followers of the god Dionys (Roman Bacch"). Dressed in animal skins, with a crown of ivy or oak or fir on their heads, they celebrated the god by singing, dancing and wandering like animals through mountains and forests. They practiced sparagmòs (from the Greek ?????????) quartering animals and eating their meat raw. ually they waved the thyrs, a pike enveloped by ivy on the top. Catull writes (Carmina, LXIV, 255) that the Bacchantes invoked the god with the cry of 'Euhoe Bacche'.