Classification
Period
Material
Iconography
Inventory
Ag.636
ID
Hyp-6780
The female head turned to the side represents Niobe like the statue of the mother and her youngest daughter, preserved in Florence depicts her. The question of whether the famous statues, found in 1583 in Rome are originals or copies attracted the vivid interest of peers as well as art experts and researchers in later times. Numerous modern replicas were made of them. This plaster cast seems to match a marble head preserved in Oxford, which was aquired by the Earl of Arundel in Rome in the early 17th century. Adolf Michaelis German classical archaeologist expressed his doubts concerning the ancient origin of the head in Oxford.
