Slightly under life-size head of the god Dionysos, depicted with youthful, idealised features. The small, almond-shaped eyes are framed by pronounced lids; the slightly lowered upper lids lend the gaze a distant, almost contemplative expression. Full lips define the relatively small mouth. The slightly asymmetrical, sensuously curved lip line, accentuated by a narrow, deeply drilled groove, suggests a gently parted mouth, while the raised corners indicate a faint smile. The head is characterised by an overall androgynous physiognomy, further accentuated by delicate Venus rings at the neck and a luxuriant coiffure. The finely differentiated hair frames the forehead in a gable-like arrangement and continues across the calotte in closely spaced, parallel waves lying flat against the skull and extending towards the back of the head.  A narrow fillet gathers the luxuriant mass of curls, articulated by narrow, deeply drilled channels, above the forehead and along the temples and sides. The ears are approximately half concealed by the hair. At the nape, several locks emerge beneath the fillet and continue down towards the back. In identifying the prototype of the present head, particular significance attaches to the elaborate coiffure, the youthful physiognomy, the pronounced androgyny and, not least, the conspicuously near-frontal orientation of the head. The first three features are combined in a statuary type of the youthful Dionysos dating ca. 100 B.C. (after B. Andreae), which is known through several replicas and depicts the god in a boyish guise. Slight divergences in the treatment of the hair at the back of the head, the forehead fillet, and the inclination of the head indicate that our head is not directly dependent upon this type; the prototype of our sculpture, however, may perhaps be sought within the same artistic milieu. As a high-quality (probably reduced-scale) copy of an original dating to the late 2nd or early 1st cent. B.C., our Dionysos was probably produced during the early Imperial period, adopting, in an eclectic manner, different stylistic elements. Thus, the modelling of the flesh, with its pronounced cheekbones, rounded chin and small, full-lipped mouth seemingly “embedded” between them, appears distinctly archaising, recalling representations of korai of the Archaic period. At the same time, the modelling of the forehead, with its subtly indicated frontal eminence, and the treatment of the eyes point to the Hellenistic origins of the prototype. The conspicuously near-frontal orientation of the head may suggest that the head was originally intended as part of a herm. Front of the nose lost. Only the bases of the lateral locks originally projecting above the fillet are preserved. At the lower back of the head, a fragment of the crown and the adjoining krobylos (lock of hair) are missing; a section of the shoulder lock survives on the right side. Minor superficial losses. The surface of the face has been smoothed to a porcelain-like finish.