Marble Head of a Youth in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2008

Marble Head of a Youth
Roman, Hadrianic or Early Antonine period, 117-161 AD

Accession # 14.130.5

This idealized head is carved in a manner that brilliantly evokes the qualities of metal in the medium of stone. The polished flesh, sharply outlined eyes, and individualized locks of hair were all typical features of bronze sculpture that were imitated in marble as part of the classicizing taste that prevailed during the reign of the emperor Hadrian in the early second century AD.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.