DiscussionPortrait head of Empress in Lateran-Louvre ('Ariadne-Amalasuntha') type. From Rome. Late fifth to early sixth century. PROVENANCE/LOCATIONPossibly from the area of Lateran. The head was in the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano since the 17th century. It had been in southern aisle near the door opening onto the cloister. It is now in the Lateran Museum. DESCRIPTION The head, mounted on an ancient but not pertinent bust, depicts a woman of mature years, full-faced and plump, with heavy-lidded eyes and drilled and inlaid irises made of black stone (possibly slate). The hair appears to be contained within a snood bound by a crown made of pearls and precious stones. Traces of a reddish substance are visible on the snood: microscopic examination identified them as pertaining to a sticky bole that had been laid over marble surface prior to gilding. The lavish aspect of the head was emphasised by the presence of cuttings for the insertion of precious stones at the intersection of the pearl-rows. (The original appearance of the portrait has experimentally reproduced through the gilding of a cast and the application of fake precious stones. Lips were hypothetically painted in red). This suggests that the portrait was displayed in a ‘protected’ space, possibly inside an official building. IDENTIFICATION Tradition has identified the portrait as Saint Helen: for this reason, as attested by circular indentations and a fifteenth century drawing (Cod. Vat. Lat. 5407), a metallic rayed nimbus was added to the head. However, the head should be identified as Ariadne by comparison with two similar heads, both from Rome (LSA-756, LSA-757), two ivory panels depicting an empress (one in the Museo del Bargello in Florence, the other in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna), and the dated (AD 513) image of an empress on the ivory diptych (in the Liverpool Museum) commemorating the consulate of Flavius Taurus Clementinus. The remarkable number of extant portraits of Ariadne and textual references describing other public images of this empress destroyed over time can be explained by her position as the sole heiress of the imperial office, which she conferred on her consorts, Zeno and then Anastasius. Main ReferenceSchade, K., Frauen in der Spätantike--Status und Repräsentation, Mainz 2003, 220-22, no. I 61, pls. 63.3-4 and 64.3-4.Discussion ReferencesEnsoli, S. and E. La Rocca (eds.), Aurea Roma: dalla città pagana alla città cristiana, Roma 2000, 582, no. 270 (fifth to sixth century) Liverani, P. 'La policromia delle statue antiche', Escultura romana en Hispania V, Murcia 2008, 81, pls. 13-14 (on polychromy) MacClanan, A., Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses. Image and Empire, New York 2002, 84 Sande, S., Zur Porträtplastik des sechsten nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts, Institutum Romanum Norvegiae, Acta ad archeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia 6, Roma 1975, 65-106, 67-73 Stichel, R. H. W., Die römische Kaiserstatue am Ende der Antike, Roma 1982, 59, pl. 25 |
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