Carolingian Marble Sculpture. Carolingian Renaissance.

Rare head of a bearded man in marble wearing a hemispherical helmet with a summit button. The helmet has a long neck and nape protector with strips. This type of helmet is known from Byzantine representations of the 9th century (frescoes of the monastery of Saint Lucas in Greece) but the plasticity of the face, its volume and the marked cheekbones rule out a Byzantine origin and place this work in the Carolingian renaissance of the 8th and 9th century. Carolingian figured sculptures are rare and we must look for connections in the psalters of Utrecht and Stuttgart (executed around 820 in the scriptorium of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris) as well as with the Carolingian ivories of the same period.
9th century
Detail www.ekinium.com