Provenance:
Galleria Serodine, Ascona, Switzerland.
Private Collection, Switzerland; where acquired from the above, 5 May 1989.

Two grooves along the top of this head originally held a royal diadem, presumably made of bronze, and indicates that the man represented is a ruler. A number of royal portraits can be grouped around the Egyptian Greek kings of the second and early first centuries B.C. (Ptolemies IV-VIII), but a precise identification is often difficult because many of these marble portraits were clearly reworked to represent the next king who seized power. In addition, some of the finer marble likenesses, including the head under consideration, were strongly idealized thus further hampering an accurate identification. The splendid series of royal portraits on Ptolemaic coins provides the best surviving evidence for pinpointing individual rulers. For a similar portrait head of Ptolemy IV, see H. Kyrieleis, Bildnisse der Ptolemäer, Berlin, 1975, p. 47 no. 171, Pl. 36.