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The Chatsworth Head1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
In his interesting and important article on this head, Professor Wace assumes that the left ear was always exposed, and says: ‘ There seems to be no actual right ear. It was apparently meant to be imagined as hidden in the mass of curls.’ Such asymmetry is most surprising in a work of this period. As Professor Wace's article is likely to remain the principal reference for the head, it is important to observe that this theory cannot be taken as an established fact. I have examined the head after reading Professor Wace's article, but still believe with Furtwängler that the right ear exists under the curls, and that the left was originally similarly covered. First, though the left ear is unnecessarily complete for a hidden feature, it is strangely crude if meant to be seen. Second, the back view (Pl. IX, I) shows even more clearly than the front (Pl. VIII, I) that a group of curls on the left, corresponding exactly to Professor Wace's piece B on the right, would easily cover the ear; or to put it the other way, that there is plenty of room under the curls on the right for an ear as complete as the left. Third, Professor Wace writes: ‘ A lump of metal can be seen from the front under the short curls on the right, but this can hardly be the lobe of an ear, for it is set lower down than the left ear.’
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1938
References
1 The Duke of Devonshire has kindly given me permission to examine the head, now on loan at the British Museum, and to publish this note.