Head of a Woman
Between 1909 and 1915, Amedeo Modigliani created about twenty-five stone sculptures, using techniques he learned from the modernist sculptor Constantin Brancusi. The sculptures were inspired by African and ancient Greek and Egyptian art and echoed the style of the portrait paintings he was also producing during this time, featuring women with elongated heads and necks. According to the artist Jacob Epstein, Modigliani ascribed a mystical significance to his sculpted heads, revering them as sacred statues in a temple of beauty and placing candles on them at night.
Credits
1950-2-1, Philadelphia Museum of Art, gift of Mrs. Maurice J. Speiser in memory of her husband.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.
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