Head of Bacchus

The head is titled to its left and portrays a young male crowned by a dense mass of ivy leaves and grape clusters. The atrributes and the idealised face indicate that he is a young Bacchus. The oval shape of his face may have been regularised and his sensous lips may have been the result of some reworking. A fillet is tied high on his forehead but there is no evidence of its ends at the back. Bartman observed that exuberant and rich ivy wreaths were popular in the Hellenistic and Roman times for Bacchus. The bust is probably a copy of an original of the third century BC. The ancient head was fitted onto a modern herm bust, the top of the crown with the upper hair are modern, there was also some breakage on the hair and the floral wreath which were reworked. The entire face has been reworked