A Roman Marble Head of Ganymede, circa 1st Century A.D.

or Paris or Attis, probably after a Classical Greek original sculpture, turned sharply to his right, his youthful face with parted lips and heavy-lidded eyes, his long wavy hair parted in the center and falling in corkscrew curls over the sides and nape of the neck, the ear-flaps of his Phrygian cap pulled up and knotted in back; Thasian marble, minor fills to lips.

Arthur Sambon (1867-1947), Paris, acquired prior to 1931
French private collection, by descent from the above until 2017

Arthur Sambon, Aperçu général de l’évolution de la sculpture depuis l’antiquité jusqu’à la fin du XVIe siècle, Paris, 1931, p. 29, pl. 23, as "Art Hellénistique (Ecole d’Aphrodisias), Tête d’Atys"

Proper left and proper right sides of lower lip restored, minute fill in centre of upper lip, otherwise as shown. Pre-restorations shots available. Note that missing earflaps and corkscrew curls over left side of neck were all undercut as freestanding. Entire surface covered in fine striations (also visible in 1931 photograph), which could be ancient tool marks or the result of light mechanical cleaning.
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There is no other known copy of the present head, but its superior workmanship suggests a hitherto unknown Greek original unlikely to have been created before the later 4th Century B.C.

The turn of the head is similar to the type of the Paris-Lansdowne (C. Giroire and D. Roger, eds., Roman Art from the Louvre, 2007, p. 84, no. 25), while the rich, centrally parted hair recalls the head of a statue in Kassel: P. Gercke and N. Zimmermann-Elseify, Antike Steinskulpturen und neuzeitliche Nachbildungen in Kassel, 2007, pp. 176ff., no. 51. For another head of a youth with Phrygian cap also see Sotheby's, New York, June 7th, 2007, no. 46.