Portrait of a Woman on Modern Bust

Roman art

Of unknown provenance, the portrait depicts a matron with large, regular-shaped eyes, a low forehead partially covered by hair, and small, full lips. The hair is divided with a central parting that starts at the forehead and continues over the whole head. The wavy locks down to the temples are curled in parallel rows that descend from the temples to the ears; from the top of the nape of the neck two braids branch off, tied at the back in a tidy bun. The hairstyle, typical of the age of Caligula, recalls in particular that of the emperor’s mother, Agrippina the Elder, suggesting it may date to the fifth decade of the first century CE.

Object details

Commentary

Of unknown provenance, this female head is set with part of its original neck on a modern bust.

The face, turned to the right, presents a well-polished oval characterised by large, regular-shaped eyes with thick eyelids; the low forehead is partially covered by hair; the restored nose is straight and expression lines are barely visible at the sides. The small tight lips are straight and full. The hairstyle is elaborate: the hair is divided into two bands by a central parting that starts at the forehead and continues over the whole head. The wavy locks down to the temples are curled in parallel rows that descend from the temples to the ears; from the top of the nape of the neck two braids branch out, tied at the back in a tight firm bun, the result of a nineteenth-century restoration. The hairstyle is typical of the age of Caligula and recalls in particular that of the emperor’s mother, Agrippina the Elder, daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, who married Germanicus in 5 CE, as first noted in a series of portraits from the beginning of Caligula’s reign. Unmistakable, in fact, is the Roman woman’s elaborate hairstyle, documented on the coins minted in her honour by her son Caligula, with her wavy hair parted in the centre of her forehead and enriched at the temples with three overlapping rows of ringed curls made with the drill. By adding a decorative and colourful note, the curls cover the ears, while long wavy locks descend down the sides of the neck to the shoulders (Buccino 2011, pp. 368–369).

Compared to the best portrait of Agrippina the Elder, the one from the Caligula age in the Capitoline Museums (inv. C12, see Boschung 2002, pp. 212–213 with list of replicas; Paris 2019), this Borghese head has fewer curls on the forehead, and the locks on the sides of the neck, which were partly restored, are simplified and reduced in length.

Agrippina the Elder – of whom many portraits were made after 37 CE during the years of Caligula’s and Claudius’ rules in an attempt to rehabilitate her figure, which had fallen into disgrace with Tiberius, who imposed her exile to Ventotene (Tansini 1995; Alexandridis 2004, pp. 66-67) – was the model for the anonymous matron of this Borghese portrait. The latter in fact is a celebration of the virtues of the energetic and passionate princess who in every way tried to keep the power in the hands of her descendants, being the sole depositary of the princeps’ blood.

Jessica Clementi