This female head is mounted on a herm, not shown in this cast, of a very different blue marble. The herm is inscribed “STAIA • L • L • QUINTA”, meaning Staia Quinta, freed slave. The head and the herm were excavated, together but not attached, along with a couple of other female heads at the same findspot. So it is not entirely certain head and inscription belong together.
The head has elaborate hair with a chignon at the back, parted in the middle with luxurious curls at the sides; a style seen in portraits of the elder Agrippina, wife of Germanicus and grandmother of Nero
Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 1435
Poulsen: Katalog over Antike Skulpturen Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 435, pl. LII
Hekler: Greek and Roman Portraits, 212a
Johansen, F: Catalogue of Roman Portraits in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (1994), vol.1, 196, no.86
STAIA • L • L • QUINTA [not on cast]
Found in the Temple of Diana at Lake Nemi in 1887. Later in the possession of Count Orsini
