81 - Head. Southern Arabia, 1st century B.C.

Head. Southern Arabia, 1st century B.C. Carved alabaster. Measurements: 9 x 8 x 3 cm; 16 x 9 x 4 cm. Provenance: Estate of Ramon Martí Alsina and Ricard Martí Aguiló. Artistic and heritage collection originating in the legacy of Catalan painters Ramon Martí Alsina (1826–1894), a seminal figure of 19th-century Catalan Realism, and his son Ricard Martí Aguiló (1857–1935). Passed down and enriched across successive generations, the collection brings together works from the original holdings of both artists alongside acquisitions made by their descendants. Dedicated to preserving and recovering the family legacy, the descendants actively reacquired works by the painters as they entered the market, progressively expanding the collection to encompass paintings, sculptures, archaeological artifacts, and other items of artistic and historical significance. An oval-shaped anthropomorphic head, carved from alabaster, whose stylized facial features reveal the restraint and expressive power characteristic of pre-Islamic South Arabian sculpture. The features are rendered through essential volumes and a marked simplification of the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, resulting in an image of great formal concentration and sculptural presence.The piece belongs to an artistic tradition that developed in the ancient kingdoms of southern Arabia—including Saba, Qataban, Ma’in, and Himyar—in the territory of present-day Yemen. During the first millennium B.C. and the first centuries of our era, this region experienced intense commercial activity linked to the incense routes, which fostered contact with the cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East. Alabaster, prized for its fine texture and luminosity, was one of the favorite materials of these sculptors. Stone heads are among the most distinctive examples of this art form. Some were intended for funerary contexts, where they might serve as commemorative images of the deceased, while others were associated with votive or religious practices.