The Lady of Elche is a limestone bust that was discovered in 1897, at La Alcudia, an archaeological site on a private estate two kilometers south of Elche, Spain. It is now exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain in Madrid.
Lady of Elche
Front view
Color reconstruction by Francisco Vives
Depicted on the 1 Peseta banknote from 1948.
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human body, depicting a person's head and neck, and a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. The bust is generally a portrait intended to record the appearance of an individual, but may sometimes represent a type. They may be of any medium used for sculpture, such as marble, bronze, terracotta, plaster, wax or wood.
Bust of Nefertiti; c. 1345 BC; limestone and plaster; height: 48 cm, width: 20 cm; Neues Museum, Berlin , Germany.
Lady of Elche (limestone, Iberian, 4th century BC)
Pericles with the Corinthian helmet (marble, Roman after a Greek original, c. 430 BC)
Bronze bust of Lucius Junius Brutus, the Capitoline Brutus (late 4th century BC to early 3rd century BC)