The head is well preserved, along with part of the neck. The nose and partially the ears are broken off. Smaller breaks and abrasions are evident on the forehead, chin, cheeks, eyebrows, neck and headdress. It depicts a young woman with an oval thin face, almond-shaped eyes with thin lids and smooth cheeks. The eyebrows are rendered plastically with sharp edges on the surface of the marble. The iris, round-shaped pupil and tear-duct are marked. The hair, parted in the middle of the forehead into two equal parts, is directed in flat waves to the back of the skull, where it gathers into a mass of individual long strands directed to the top of the head. There it forms an open “turban”-like bun that covers the entire surface of the skull. A thin lunate lock of hair is left free on the surface of each temple, while low on both sides of the neck, but also on the nape, there are free curly locks of hair. The rear and upper part of the head are roughly worked. The head belongs to a wider group of portraits of the Hadrianic period that sport a “turban” headdress, and is widely influenced by the so-called “main iconographic type” of the empress Sabina (the latter sports a loosely looped- bundle of hair at the top of the head, not a real “turban”; for the type see Κ. Fittschen, P. Zanker, Katalog der capitolinischen Museen III, Mainz am Rhein 1983, 10-12, cat. nos. 10-11 [ca. 128-138 CE; K. Fittschen]; Fittschen 2000, 514 note 50; Fittschen 2012, 105, note 18; the head does not belong to the group of portraits of the late Hadrianic - Antonine period sporting a tower-like “turban” made of parallel braids - cf. e.g. the portrait heads {Γ40}, {Γ58} and {Γ85}; for this type of coiffure see Κ. Fittschen, P. Zanker, Katalog der capitolinischen Museen III , Mainz am Rhein 1983, cat. no. 86; Fittchen 2000, 507-511; Despinis et al. 2003, 169-172, cat. nos. 279-280 with bibliography [Th. Stephanidou – Tiveriou]; Fittschen 2012, esp. 110-111 with bibliography); for a “forerunner” of this group cf. the head {Γ19}, late Trajanic period). A portrait from Greece that belongs to the same group as the present head is the portrait head in the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum inv. 3 (Despinis et al. 2003, cat. no. 282 [Th. Stephanidou-Tiveriou]; for two other portraits from Italy see Fittschen 2012, 106 note 18 with bibliography).
P. Kavvadias, Γλυπτά του Εθνικού Μουσείου: κατάλογος περιγραφικός, Athens 1890, 272, cat. no. 449; P. Kastriotis, Γλυπτά του Εθνικού Μουσείου: κατάλογος περιγραφικός, Athens 1908, 78, cat. no. 449; F. Poulsen, Greek and Roman Portraits in English Country Houses, Oxford 1923, 78, note 1 (Sabina); A. Hekler, “Archäologische Gesellschaft zu Berlin. Neue Antiken aus Athen”, AA 49 (1934), col. 260, figs. 9-10; M. Wegner, “Archaologische Gesellschaft zu Berlin. Datierung römischer Haartrachten”, AA 53 (1938), col. 304, figs. 16-17 (Sabina); R. West, Römische Porträtplastik II, München 1941, 125, no. 1; E.B. Harrison, The Athenian Agora I. Portrait Sculpture, Princeton N.J. 1953, 37, note 9; M. Wegner, Das Römische Herrscherbild II.3. Hadrian, Plotina, Marciana, Matidia, Sabina, Berlin 1956, 87, 126, fig. 43 (Sabina); A. Stavridi, “Εικονογραφία της αυτοκράτειρας Σαβίνης εις τον ελληνικόν χώρον”, ΑΑΑ 7 (1974), 261-266, figs. 1-2; A. Datsouli-Stavridi, Ρωμαϊκά πορτραίτα στο Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο της Αθήνας, Athens 1985, 45-46, no. 449, pl. 43 (Sabina); K. Romiopoulou, Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο. Συλλογή ρωμαϊκών γλυπτών, Athens 1997, 78, cat. no. 78 (Sabina?); Κ. Fittchen, “Nicht Sabina”, AA 2000, 511-514, figs. 5, 7 and 9 (private portrait); N. Kaltsas ed., Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο. Τα γλυπτά. Κατάλογος, Athens 2001, 340, cat. no. 722; G. Despinis, Th. Stephanidou-Tiveriou, E. Voutiras eds., Κατάλογος γλύπτών του Αρχαιολογικού Μουσείου Θεσσαλονίκης ΙΙ, Thessaloniki 2003, 165 in cat. no. 282 (Th. Stephanidou-Tiveriou); K. Fittschen, “Über die Haartrachten von Kaiserinnen und Bürgerinnen in der mittleren Kaiserzeit”, ÉtTrav 25 (2012), 105 note 18.
