Head of a goddess; Roman Empire, 1st–2nd centuries A.D.

Head of a goddess; Roman Empire, 1st–2nd centuries A.D.
Marble.
Provenance: private collection, Madrid.
Measurements: 13 x 9 x 8 cm; 24 cm total height.
Fragment of a Roman marble sculpture, created between the 1st and 2nd centuries, depicting the head of a goddess with a serene expression, a faint smile, and her hair pulled back and adorned with a tiara.
Between the late 2nd century BC and the early 1st century BC, a shift occurred in the Greek purist trend that had previously dominated Roman art; this shift culminated in the establishment of a national school of sculpture in Rome. From this school emerged works such as the Altar of Aenobarbus, which already introduced a typically Roman narrative concept that would become a chronicle of daily life and, at the same time, of the success of its political model. This school would be the precursor to the great imperial art of Augustus, during whose reign Rome became the most influential city in the Empire and also the new center of Hellenistic culture—as Pergamon and Alexandria had been before—attracting a large number of Greek artists and artisans. During the Augustan era, Rome contributed to the continuity and renewal of a tradition that had already enjoyed centuries of prestige and had shaped the character of all art in the region. In this new phase, Greek aesthetics and techniques were applied to themes specific to this new Rome. Following the idealization of the Augustan age, the realism of the Flavian era, and the subsequent Baroque style of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Roman sculpture—marked by the presence of Christianity—tended to become dehumanized, growing more idealized and symbolic. The concern for realism was lost, and there was a shift toward a stylized approach that sought to capture the ideal, the soul, or the divine, rather than the human appearance of the figures. In keeping with this new aesthetic, the carving took on a great hardness, and the figures acquired a noble, solemn air.