Portrait of a Woman with a Flavia Domitilla-type hairstyle

Roman art

This head depicts a woman with a very marked physiognomy, almond shaped eyes, small, pursed lips and elaborately fashioned hair. Above her forehead, separated by the central parting, are three bands of wavy locks, while a braid is wound around the nape of her neck and the summit of her head. This portrait appears to evoke, albeit with some variations, the imperial iconography of Flavian period women, especially Flavia Domitilla, the wife of Vespasian. The hairstyle, though simplified and less voluminous, would suggest a chronological setting of the sculpture between the end of the Flavian period and the beginning of the Trajanian.

Restored by Felice Festa in 1820, since 1828 this bust has been exhibited alongside another six inside a round niche in Room 1. 

Object details

Commentary

This female head set atop a modern bust displays a sophisticated hairstyle, with three wavy bands symmetrically arranged around a central part leaving the ears uncovered. The rest of the hair is gathered on top of the head in a braid that wraps around the nape of the neck. Two small, hooked curls are arranged in front of the ears. The head is turned to the right and the features of the face are soft: the forehead is narrow; the thin, arched eyebrows merge into the bridge of the linear, narrow-ridged nose. The eyes are almond-shaped, the eyelids swollen. The lips are small and thin. The hairstyle would appear to be a simplified, less voluminous version of official Flavian-period iconography. In particular, the Borghese portrait can be compared in type, especially observing the anterior locks of hair, with a specimen preserved at the Musei Capitolini and dated to the early Trajanian period (Baldassarri 2010, pp. 252–253), with a portrait at the Musei Vaticani that comes from the Tomb of the Haterii (Giuliano 1957, p. 48, no. 52, pls. 32–33) and with one in Copenhagen (Johansen 1995, pp. 40–41, no. 9). A similar hairstyle, with wavy locks and a central parting, may be observed in the portrait of a young girl who is part of a sculptural group carved in the round preserved at Chatsworth House that has been dated to the Flavian period, or at the latest to the Trajanian period (Furtwängler 1901, pp. 221–224). In particular, the hooked curl in front of the ear may be likened to a second portrait preserved at the Musei Capitolini and dated between the late Trajanian and the early Hadrianic period (Fittschen, Zanker 1985, p. 61, no. 82, pls. 102–103).

This sculpture appears in 1820, listed among a number of busts entrusted to Felice Festa for restoration: ‘seven busts, the pediments of which must be refitted and the missing ones remade, the busts themselves should be restored where they are lacking, polished with lead, and the mixed marbles shined, for the artist may not use paint or other compositions to give them lustre’ (B. 1005, no. 158: Moreno, Sforzini 1987, p. 348). In 1828 it was cited, alongside another six busts, in the Nomenclatura degli oggetti di antica scultura, located in a niche in Room 1 (Moreno 1997, p. 92); this placement was confirmed by Nibby in 1841 (p. 913). Calza dated the head to 150 CE, but Moreno refuted this dating for he identified the features as a portrait, albeit with a number of variations, of Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian (1957, p. 15, no. 148; Moreno, Viacava 2003, pp. 151–152, no. 118).

The stylistic rendition of the Borghese specimen, characterised by somewhat delicate contours and an elegant fashioning of the hair, suggests a chronological setting between the end of the Flavian period and the beginning of the Trajanian.

Giulia Ciccarello