duccio

She was probably high up on the columns and meant to be seen from far below. That is likely why her face is so long and thin, and her eyes are big under the shadow casting forehead. Early Italian sculptors who made the statues for cathedral facades high above the viewers used the same distortions. The French actually developed this into a sort of gothic style with all the proportions elongated. Maybe this is why she looks kind of wide-eyed crazed. The hair on the other side of the head has a flowing set of parallel lines and seems to display a post art nouveau/proto art deco sensibility which might also explain the sort of robot/spacy look in the face. Yet, the sense of classicism which was their intent in that period in San Francisco is the main influence I think. San Francisco thought of itself, and was interested in becoming a sort of new Roman Empire of the Pacific Rim. Much of the architecture of the period recalls the Forum.