DiscussionPortrait head for insertion of Empress. From Rome? Fourth century. DESCRIPTION (Object)Over life-size head, worked separately. H: 33.8, H (chin to crown) 17.2 cm. Fine-grained white marble. The head is preserved with its neck and the beginning of the bare right shoulder; the left shoulder is not included in this separately worked element. It was probably inserted into a draped statue. There are holes (11) in the flat upper border of the crown for the insertion of some element. The nose and a portion of the hair below the right ear are restoration. The left upper edge of the diadem is chipped. The top of the head has been shaped and smoothed but given no representational detail; the braid behind the crown is also devoid of detail. The hair around the brow is worked with a flat chisel. The pupils of the eyes are deeply drilled U-shapes. The irises are large, engraved circles. PROVENANCE It was purchased from the Quirici collection in Modena which was probably acquired in Rome. DESCRIPTION (Subject) The woman wears a jewelled crown which identifies her as an empress. The crown consists of a lower band of projecting circular stones or pearls; above that are 15 square bevels which contain square decoration; in the upper edge of the band with the square bevels are holes for the insertion of further decoration; and in the centre an oval jewel, larger than the flanking stones, is surmounted by a large rectangular bevel, it larger than the flanking bevels. She also wears pendant, possibly pearl, earrings. The hair is parted in the centre and pulled to both sides, covering the ears. At the back the hair is divided into two sections which begin each behind an ear and cross over each other above the centre of the nape. They are then pulled around the head and form a band behind the crown. The face is essentially oval, though it is slightly wider across the cheekbones. The eyes are large, and the skin beneath them is carefully modelled to suggest age. The mouth is short from side to side and has marked corners. The chin, whose upper border is defined by a curving line below the mouth, is deep and projecting. DATE AND HONORAND Attempts to date the portrait or identify the honorand can use three factors which however provide only a general date in the fourth century. 1) The type of pearl-edged crown with rectangular stones and a central decoration provides a terminus post quem of c. 330 since it first appears regularly on coin portraits of the sons of Constantine. In the round a similar crown is preserved on both LSA-582 and LSA-578 , which are generally identified as Valentinian or Valens. The same sort of crown appears also on Theodosian portraits; see LSA-163 and LSA-337---though in these two extant examples of that period there are no rectangular bevels between the pearls. 2) The hairstyle is a fashion that has a slightly earlier terminus ante quem than the crown. It appears on coin images of the women of Constantine, and most particularly on that of his half-sister Constantia (married to Licinius). Delbrueck used the numismatic evidence to argue that the hairstyle, two encircling braids rather than a central vertical braid up the back, should date the head between 330 and 360. This hairstyle is distinctly out of favour in the coin portraits of the women of the Theodosian court. 3) Stylistically the head is close to LSA-337; they share a similar facial structure, proportions of eyes and mouth within the face, finely engraved hair separated from the brow, and softly modelled skin below the eyes and around the mouth. In fact on stylistic grounds, Schade argues for a Theodosian date. Main ReferenceSchade, K., Frauen in der Spätantike--Status und Repräsentation, Mainz 2003, 187-8, no. I 27, pl. 40.2-3Delbrueck, R., Spätantike Kaiserporträts. Von Constantinus Magnus bis zum Ende des Westreichs , Leipzig 1933, 169-71, pls. 69-70 Discussion ReferencesL'Orange, H. P., Das spätantike Herrscherbild von Diokletian bis zu den Konstantin-Söhnen, 284-361 n. Chr. Das Römische Herrscherbild. III. Abteilung ; Bd. 4 , Berlin 1984, 149 Stutzinger, D. (ed.), Spätantike und frühes Christentum. Ausstellung im Liebieghaus, Museum alter Plastik, Frankfurt am Main. 16. Dezember bis 11. März 1984, Frankfurt a.M. (1983), no. 54 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, 76, no. IV 3 (mid fourth century) |
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