Extra Content

Discussion

Portrait statuette of Empress. From Cyprus. Late fourth to early fifth century.

DESCRIPTION (Object)
Statuette. H: 78 cm. Fine-grained white marble

The head broke from the body at the base of the neck and has been re-joined. The right hand was separately worked and attached by a dowel; it is now missing. The same is true for the front of the feet, though there is no dowel hole in the left foot. The borders, clavi, of the dalmatica were added in another material; at the right shoulder and along both legs are roughly-picked and recessed bands that would have received an inserted element. A collar around the neck was also added in a different material; there too are grooves to receive another element. The ears have holes for separately-worked earrings. A hole on the outside of the left shin was also for the attachment of some decoration.

The back is flatly worked and behind the head is large neck pillar which begins at the middle of the back and rises to the head. A strut connects the diptych held in the left hand to the thigh.

PROVENANCE
From Cyprus. Gifted to the French state in 1846.

DESCRIPTION (Subject)
The statuette shows an empress with a crown braid hairstyle, a diadem of round gems, holes for earrings, a jeweled neckline, an added collar, and an especially ornate dalmatica. She turns to her right, places her weight over her right leg, raises her right hand, and holds a diptych in her left hand.

The woman wears three garments. The innermost one, the tunic, has long sleeves which can be seen clearly on the right arm. Over this she wears a dalmatica which had decorated clavi. A cloak or himation is tightly wrapped diagonally across the body over the dalmatica. Its upper edge runs from the right waist to the left shoulder, and its lower edge from the right knee to the left wrist.

Around the neck in low relief are a series of flat disks and rectangles. Below this are a series of parallel grooves, which loop between the inner shoulders, which once received a decorative collar.

The hair is parted in the centre. It is pulled upwards and back in fine strands, covering the ears, and then collected at the back and brought in large braid to the front of the brow. On the voluminous band of pulled-up hair above the brow is a diadem. It consists of two rows of rounded stones which converge to a central oval gem immediately above the part. Delbrueck wrote that there was a Christogram inscribed on the gem.

The brow is low and the eyes are large with heavy upper lids. The face has a long, oval shape. The nose is slightly hooked. The chin is deep and has loose skin (double chin) below it.

DATE
The crown braid hairstyle was worn in the later third century and then again in the later fourth and earlier fifth century. The style of the face and the diadem make the earlier date impossible in this case.

Delbreuck, misled by the hairstyle, identified the statuette as Helena. More current scholarship is united in placing the head in between the later fourth and earlier fifth centuries. Breckenridge accepted the identification as Aelia Flacilla, wife of the Theodosius I, who died in 385. Schade proposed either Aelia Flacilla or Aelia Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius. Stichel and Meischner prefer Pulcheria, daughter of Arcadius. Stylistically close parallels are provided by LSA-41, which also wears a similar hairstyle, and a bust of Isbardia LSA-427.

J. Lenaghan

Main Reference

Schade, K., Frauen in der Spätantike--Status und Repräsentation, Mainz 2003, 204-6, no. I.46, pl. 54.1-2 (Theodosian)

Delbrueck, R., Spätantike Kaiserporträts. Von Constantinus Magnus bis zum Ende des Westreichs , Leipzig 1933, 163-5, pls. 62-4, fig. 58 (Helena)

Discussion References

Meischner, J., Bildnisse der Spätantike : 193-500 : Problemfelder : die Privatporträts , Berlin 2001, 122 (Pulcheria)

Meischner, J., 'Das Porträt der theodosianischen Epoche II (400 bis 460 n. Chr.),' , Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 106 (1991), 385-407, 398-9, fn. 36, pl. 89.1 (c. 420-440)

Stichel, R. H. W., Die römische Kaiserstatue am Ende der Antike, Roma 1982, 52-3, pl. 19 (Pulcheria)

von Heintze, H. ‘Ein spätantikes Mädchenportät in Bonn. Zur stilitischen Entwicklung des Frauenbildnisses im 4. und 5. Jahrhundert’, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 14, Münster 1971, 83, no. VI 8 (late fourth to early fifth century)

Weitzmann, K. (ed.), Age of spirituality : late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century : catalogue of the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 19, 1977, through February 12, 1978, New York 1979, 26-7, no. 20 (J.D. Breckenridge: 380-390)

[Sleeker_special_clear]