A Roman marble female portrait head
Circa late 1st Century B.C.-early 1st Century A.D.
With lidded almond-shaped eyes, her thin lips forming a stern expression, her wavy hair drawn back from her face and dressed in a characteristic roll above her brow, the back summarily carved, 24.5cm high注脚Provenance:
Mr A. collection, Paris, acquired prior to 1996.

Published:
F. Antonovich, Les Métamorphoses Divines d'Alexandre, Paris, 1996, p. 242.
C.-G. Schwentzel, Images d'Alexandre et des Ptolémées, Paris, 1999, no. 86.

This portrait replicates the characteristic nodus hairstyle of Octavia Minor, as well as her thin-lipped expression, and is similar to a portrait of Octavia in the Museo Nazionale Romano, inv. no. 124500. Octavia Minor was the beloved sister of the emperor Augustus, and wife of Mark Anthony, though she was abandoned by the latter in favour of Cleopatra in 32 B.C.