40. Roman Lady

The younger woman has a wide face, a small mouth, a slender nose and large wide-open eyes whose irises are still painted. The hairstyle has a great number of rolled curls and a firm roll of hair behind the ears.

The portrait has previously been called Livia or Agrippina Minor, but this woman’s face possesses a different form than either of the two empresses and she must thus remain nameless for now.

Original: Early Claudian era. Copy: Claudian era.

I. N. 747
Head.
Marble. H. 0.27.

During a cleansing in 1980, it came to light that the crown was actually one centimeter too large. Also, the bridge of the nose that was attached at that time was modern.

Through isotope-analysis of the stable isotopes carbon 13C and oxygen 80, it was determined that the head itself was made of marble from Paros, the crown was made from Asia Minor marble from Ephesus and the now-removed bridge of the nose was of Carrara marble.

Acquired in 1897 from Count Tyszkiewicz in Paris. Presumably found in The Licinian Tomb in Rome.

Frederik Poulsen, Catalogue of Ancient Sculpture in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (1951), Cat. 614;
V. Poulsen, Les portraits Romains I (1973), Cat. 39;
K. Polachek, Tr235 (1972) 171, Abb. 9, 7;
J. Inan — E. Alföldi-Rosenbaum, Römische und frühbyzantinische Porträtplastik aus der Türkei (1979), 66;
D. Boschung, JdI 101 (1986) 270, Abb. 14-16;
M. Moltesen, MedKøb 45 (1989) 93, figs. 10-11;
Kaiser Augustus und die verlorene Republik (1988) no. 162;
M. Moltesen, AA (1991) 274, Abb. 7-10.