The selected works are from the collections of the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art. They include fragments of statues, busts, and steles, funerary masks, and balsamaria, all depicting the faces of men, women, and children.
The earliest date to about 550 B.C. and the most recent to 150 A.D. Seven centuries of Antiquity are thus covered by this body of work. The pieces are mostly from Greece, Italy, and Egypt, with a few from Palmyra (Syrian city northeast of today’s Damascus) and Asia Minor.
Some represent people we know nothing about. Others portray historical figures such as Faustina the Younger, Arsinoë II, Augustus, Antinous, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Posidippus of Pella, and Demosthenes. Included too are fragments of sculptures depicting gods and goddesses, among them Aphrodite, Dionysus, Apollo, Zeus, Demeter, Persephone, Heracles, and Pan.
