Portrait head of a «kosmetes»

Provenance: Athens, «Diogeneion». height: 0.31 m. Marble: Pentelic.
Chronology: 110-138 AD. EAM 392

The portrait depicts a beardless man with short hair arranged in unkempt, crescent-shaped and spiral locks going in opposite directions. The heavy eyelids, the fleshy lips and the plump chin, combined with the tilt of the head, contribute to the melodramatic style of the figure. This is a sophisticated «Greek» appearance, cultivated by the representatives of the Second Sophistic and adopted by the élite of the Hadrianic period.