DiscussionSmall bust of woman wearing ornate band from group of six. From Asia Minor. Late third century. DESCRIPTION (Object)Miniature bust. H: 33, H (chin to crown): 12 cm. Fine-grained white marble. The bust is completely preserved. The surface is polished. The back of the bust has been hollowed out. It has a spine, and there are marks of the claw chisel in the hollowed area. The pupils are marked by drill points. The flat chisel has been used to render most details of the hair. PROVENANCE Asia Minor. Said possibly to have come from western Phrygia. It was part of a coherent group of six small busts (see also LSA-433, LSA-434, LSA-436, LSA-437, LSA-438). These busts appeared on art market with figures from the story of Jonas and a statuette of the Good Shepherd. DESCRIPTION (Subject) The portrait bust shows the same woman as LSA-433 and LSA-434. Here she wears a sleeved chiton and a decorated band. The band passes vertically over the left breast and shoulder. It reappears under the right armpit and crosses the body diagonally. It disappears around the right upper arm. It has defined outer borders and an inner raised decoration of scrolling tendrils. The head turns to its left. The face is broad with small eyes and thin lips. The hair is parted at the centre, pulled gently back around the ears, and then upwards in a broad band. The broad band is braided into a series of plaits, beginning above the ears. This broad plaited mass is rolled under itself near the front of the head. The roll is tall. The bust rests on a thick cylindrical foot which has simple mouldings. Between the bust and the foot the spine is faced at the front by a tabula. The curving lateral sides of the tabula are indicated by engraved lines but are not drilled out. DRESS The same band appears on three other female portraits: a statue from Carnuntum LSA-1273, a bust from Egypt LSA-1664, and a fine bust now in Bucarest LSA-1706. DATE The hairstyle belongs most probably in the last quarter of the third century. Coins of Ulpia Severina (270-275) show her with a broad central plait which folds under itself. It existed in many variations which are difficult to date precisely and which probably range from 260-300; see LSA-278, LSA-364, LSA-993, and LSA-994. The male portrait, repeated in three versions (LSA-436, LSA-437, LSA-438), with which this bust, was found offers a similar dilemma. It compares well with coin portraits of Carinus, emperor 282-284, but was probably an option that existed both before and after Carinus. Inan and Rosenbaum place the Cleveland group of busts between 270-290; Bergmann in the 270s. FORM AND CONTEXT Three pairs of miniature busts of the same couple are assuredly from a private, possibly funerary, context. Roman sarcophagi also show the same individual or individuals represented in different dress on the same monument. Main ReferenceInan, J. & E. Alföldi-Rosenbaum, Römische und frühbyzantinische Porträ̈tplastik aus der Türkei : neue Funde, Mainz 1979, 325-6, no. 325, pl. 228.1 and 3, 234 |
Last Statues of Antiquity
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