Female bust; Rome, 2nd century A.D.

Female bust; Rome, 2nd century A.D.
Marble.
It shows superficial wear, erosion and material losses.
Measurements: 22 x 15 x 13 cm.
Roman white marble bust of a young woman. The piece has a serene face with almond-shaped eyes with an expressive look and slightly pursed lips, as well as a high hairstyle with wavy hair, with a cape or scarf on the head. It should be noted that the sculpture would probably have been polychrome, as was usual in many works of the Roman Empire.The Romans brought two important innovations to the world of sculpture: the portrait and the historical relief, neither of which existed in the Greek world. However, they followed the Greek models for much of their sculptural production, a base that in Rome would be combined with the Etruscan tradition. After the first contacts with the Greece of classicism through the colonies of Magna Graecia, the Romans conquered Syracuse in 212 BC, a rich and important Greek colony located in Sicily, adorned with a large number of Hellenistic works. The city was sacked and its artistic treasures taken to Rome, where the new style of these works soon replaced the Etruscan-Roman tradition that had prevailed until then. Shortly afterwards, in 133 B.C., the Empire inherited the kingdom of Pergamon, where there was an original and thriving school of Hellenistic sculpture. The huge Pergamon Altar, the "Gallus committing suicide" or the dramatic group "Laocoön and his sons" were three of the key creations of this Hellenistic school. On the other hand, after Greece was conquered in 146 B.C. most Greek artists settled in Rome, and many of them devoted themselves to making copies of Greek sculptures, very fashionable at that time in the capital of the Empire.