Dublin Core
Title
Cast no.31
Abstract
Head of an imperial Roman woman.
From the Towneley collection.
Marble.
Late first to early 2nd century CE.
London, British Museum.
H 14 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 983.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 hallway
The identification is pure conjecture, but a few portraits identified as Matidia bear some resemblance to this one, as do profile portraits of the deified Matidia on coins. One of the difficulties in identifying female portraits is that upper-class women wanted their images to resemble that of the current empress. But it also resembles portraits of her predecessors and of her daughter Sabina. The nose, ears, neck, and parts of the headdress are restored in the marble. Matidia (d. 119) was the niece of the emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 CE): she accompanied him on his campaigns in Dacia; and she was with him at his death. Her daughter Sabina married Hadrian (r. 117-138 CE), and Hadrian delivered Matidia's funeral oration and had his mother-in-law deified. The Egyptian city of Phyle was renamed after her, and the Basilica Matidiae was dedicated in her honor on the Campus Martius in Rome. Images of imperial family members served as an essential means of propaganda, and recognition of imperial likenesses was the visual key to continuity within each dynasty. Perhaps the most important element to consider in attempting to identify a female Roman portrait is the hairstyle. Complicated hairstyles communicated wealth and status: attendants; time; paid hairdressers or slaves; and money. This head is just over lifesize, a little flesh beneath the chin to show her maturity, and eyes punctuated with incised pupils and carved irises. Her classically oval face and heavy eyelids suggest that the head was produced during the reign of Hadrian, a great Hellenophile. Spiral curls frame the woman's face, and behind them a tiara of hair divides the style like a headband. The hair is roughly sectioned parallel to the head towards the nape of the neck, where there is a large coil of thin braids on the original, a feature that has broken off from the copy. Behind each ear, two soft tendrils trail down her neck. Roman women typically wore their hair long and "up." If elite Roman women desired wigs or hair extensions for buns/coils and braids, these were available. Hairstyles as complicated as Matidia's three-part up-do communicated wealth and status, requiring time, attendants, and money, to all of which Matidia had access. Spiral curls like these would have been achieved by the application of heat, perhaps held in place by pins, enhanced in sculpture by the boring drill. The mid-section of the hair - in three rows of square sections rolled forwards into thick pin-curls - serves as a diadem or tiara made from hair. The hair twists down the back of the head in what might be described as finger waves, stopping midway at a flattened area where a hairpiece would have been anchored by some type of round cinch, like a modern ponytail holder from which looser curls would have fallen onto the neck.
~Lucy R. Miller
From the Towneley collection.
Marble.
Late first to early 2nd century CE.
London, British Museum.
H 14 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 983.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 hallway
The identification is pure conjecture, but a few portraits identified as Matidia bear some resemblance to this one, as do profile portraits of the deified Matidia on coins. One of the difficulties in identifying female portraits is that upper-class women wanted their images to resemble that of the current empress. But it also resembles portraits of her predecessors and of her daughter Sabina. The nose, ears, neck, and parts of the headdress are restored in the marble. Matidia (d. 119) was the niece of the emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 CE): she accompanied him on his campaigns in Dacia; and she was with him at his death. Her daughter Sabina married Hadrian (r. 117-138 CE), and Hadrian delivered Matidia's funeral oration and had his mother-in-law deified. The Egyptian city of Phyle was renamed after her, and the Basilica Matidiae was dedicated in her honor on the Campus Martius in Rome. Images of imperial family members served as an essential means of propaganda, and recognition of imperial likenesses was the visual key to continuity within each dynasty. Perhaps the most important element to consider in attempting to identify a female Roman portrait is the hairstyle. Complicated hairstyles communicated wealth and status: attendants; time; paid hairdressers or slaves; and money. This head is just over lifesize, a little flesh beneath the chin to show her maturity, and eyes punctuated with incised pupils and carved irises. Her classically oval face and heavy eyelids suggest that the head was produced during the reign of Hadrian, a great Hellenophile. Spiral curls frame the woman's face, and behind them a tiara of hair divides the style like a headband. The hair is roughly sectioned parallel to the head towards the nape of the neck, where there is a large coil of thin braids on the original, a feature that has broken off from the copy. Behind each ear, two soft tendrils trail down her neck. Roman women typically wore their hair long and "up." If elite Roman women desired wigs or hair extensions for buns/coils and braids, these were available. Hairstyles as complicated as Matidia's three-part up-do communicated wealth and status, requiring time, attendants, and money, to all of which Matidia had access. Spiral curls like these would have been achieved by the application of heat, perhaps held in place by pins, enhanced in sculpture by the boring drill. The mid-section of the hair - in three rows of square sections rolled forwards into thick pin-curls - serves as a diadem or tiara made from hair. The hair twists down the back of the head in what might be described as finger waves, stopping midway at a flattened area where a hairpiece would have been anchored by some type of round cinch, like a modern ponytail holder from which looser curls would have fallen onto the neck.
~Lucy R. Miller
Bibliographic Citation
Bibliography
See: Author, ten years of practical experience as licensed hairdresser in Virginia; Elizabeth Bartman, "Hair and the Artifice of Female Adornment," American Journal of Archaeology 105 (2001), 1-25; Klaus Fittschen and Paul Zanker, Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom (Mainz, 1983), vol. 1 supplement 57, vol. 2 supplement, 16 a-d; Diana E.E. Kleiner and Fred S. Kleiner, review of Karin Polaschek, Porträttypen einer claudischen Kaiserin, American Journal of Archaeology 78 (1974), 444; P. A. Roche, "The Public Image of Trajan's Family," Classical Philology, 97 (2002), 55, 60; A. H. Smith, Catalog of Greek Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. III (London, 1904), 158, no. 1898; Max Wegner, Hadrian: Plotina, Marciana, Matidia, Sabina (Berlin, 1956), 80. Figure. Figure. No. 31 before cleaning.
See: Author, ten years of practical experience as licensed hairdresser in Virginia; Elizabeth Bartman, "Hair and the Artifice of Female Adornment," American Journal of Archaeology 105 (2001), 1-25; Klaus Fittschen and Paul Zanker, Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom (Mainz, 1983), vol. 1 supplement 57, vol. 2 supplement, 16 a-d; Diana E.E. Kleiner and Fred S. Kleiner, review of Karin Polaschek, Porträttypen einer claudischen Kaiserin, American Journal of Archaeology 78 (1974), 444; P. A. Roche, "The Public Image of Trajan's Family," Classical Philology, 97 (2002), 55, 60; A. H. Smith, Catalog of Greek Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. III (London, 1904), 158, no. 1898; Max Wegner, Hadrian: Plotina, Marciana, Matidia, Sabina (Berlin, 1956), 80. Figure. Figure. No. 31 before cleaning.
Geolocation
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