This beautifully modeling terracotta head still preserved some of its original pigment: below the crown on the far right side, and on the curly locks on the left, there are remains of the once bright red paint. The face, framed with curls, has a prominent nose, full lips, rounded cheeks, and heavy eyelids.

The most striking element of this piece, however, is not the face, but the tall, elaborate headdress sitting atop the head. The headdress is comprised of rows of leaves topped with a great palmette; there is a large fragmentary flower at the junction of the lower part of the headdress and the palmette, which may have been a type of pansy. This headdress is the clue that could help identify this head as Aphrodite, the goddess of love, as she was depicted on Cyprus, an island in the eastern Mediterranean. In Cyprus, depictions of Aphrodite borrowed heavily from the iconography of an eastern fertility goddess, Astarte. As such, in Cyprus, Aphrodite wears a high circular headdress, such as that seen here, decorated with vegetal and floral motifs. It is likely, then, that this head once topped a figurine of Aphrodite, which, perhaps, was created to be an offering to that goddess.

Stylistically, this head recalls terracotta figures from Magna Graecia (Greek Colonies in the West).

All e-Tiquities have been searched in the Art Loss Register database.