Head of a Goat

Late Hellenistic or Julio-Claudian Roman. Head of goat missing tip of head, tip of left ear, right ear and base of neck; scar at right side of lower jaw for projecting puntello which originally connected the head with some kind of background (noticed by S. Ebbinghaus, 2/2/09). Fine-grained white marble. Extremely senstive modeling of muscle and bone structure under skin on left side. The pupil of eye projects from under raised and rounded muscular process. The right eye is simply a raised, rounded feature. The left ear hangs as a thick, rounded mass. The goat has a thin neck, in section a vertical oval curves to its right. Areas of calcium carbonate incrustation on top of neck and head. Traces of root hairs visible in depression between left eye and ear. This sensitively modelled goat's head may originally have belonged to a small statuary group or high relief of a shepherd with his sheep and goats in a bucolic landscape. (DGM)