Vatican Museums

Inspired by models of Greek art from the fourth century B.C., this ideal female head, elegantly formed, certainly depicts a goddess. Probably inserted in a bust or a statuary body, in the same or different material, it would have been used to cover an item in prized wood, according to a widespread custom in the Roman world from the second century B.C. onwards. The eyeballs would have been made of vitreous paste or semi-precious stones.
The different technique used for working with ivory, compared to marble, does not allow the same criteria of evaluation to be applied to ivory works and great marble sculpture, making precise dating difficult. Various elements would imply that it originates from the first century A.D., although the definition of the locks of hair in long furrows would however suggest that it was produced during the first Antonine period, around the middle of the second century A.D.