Portrait of Faustina the Elder on a Modern Bust

Roman art

The head depicts a mature woman with the physiognomic features corresponding to those of Faustina the Elder, wife of Emperor Antoninus Pius, as known from coinage iconography and official sculptural renditions: broad facial surfaces, delicate contours, soft cheeks, accentuated double chin, protruding eyeballs and clearly outlined eyelids, broad eyebrows and full lips, and a sophisticated ‘turban’ or ‘tower’ hairstyle.

Technical and stylistic aspects of this bust suggest the Borghese portrait may date to the central years of Antoninus Pius’s rule.

Object details

Commentary

Of unknown provenance, this woman’s head set on a modern bust became part of the Borghese Collection prior to the death of Giovanni Battista Borghese, which was followed (6 January 1610) by the drawing up of the Inventario della primogeniture, the inventory of primogeniture in which the sculpture is mentioned at no. 85 as ‘Head of Faustina with bust and arm covered by her clothing’ (Archivio Borghese, no. 37, Tomo XVI, Atti di famiglia, no. 616, no. 55; de Lachenal 1982 p. 97). In 1828, when a new collection display was set up in the Casino of Villa Pinciana, the bust was entrusted to Massimiliano Laboureur for restoration, which was followed by its display in one of the niches in Room II, where Nibby mentions it in his 1832 guide to Galleria Borghese. Before 1893, the bust was moved to Room VIII, where it is displayed today.

The sculpture depicts Anna Galeria Faustina, wife of emperor Antoninus Pius, called the Elder to distinguish her from her daughter of the same name, wife of her father’s successor, Marcus Aurelius in the so-called mit Stirnband type (Fittschen, Zanker 1983, pp. 19 ff., no. 18, table 22-23). Faustina the Elder is recognisable due to the broad facial surfaces, delicate contours, soft cheeks, accentuated double chin, eyes with a protruding eyeball and sharply drawn eyelids, broad eyebrows, and full lips, all the physiognomic features of the empress known from monetary iconography and official portraits. The hair is described with thick, rough undulations directed backwards; above the forehead a portion of the ribbon is partially visible amongst the locks, while from the nape of the neck the hair wrapped in two groups of braids is pinned on the top of the head fixed in a soft bun.

According to the classification proposed by Fittschen, the mit Stirnband type counts nine replicas, fewer than those identified by Wegner (Wegner 1939, pp. 28 ff.). Among these are the Capitoline replica (Wegner 1939, pp. 26, 161, table 10) and the Farnese collection replica (Naples, MANN, inv. 6080, Coraggio 2009), in which, however, the hair is gathered in simple undulations ending in a bun. According to Fittschen (Fittschen 1977, p. 83), the mit Stirnband type spread during the years of the principate and was also used for posthumous replicas: the examples can be distinguished based on a stylistic basis; of note is the limited circulation of these sculptural creations, which were mainly intended for urban contexts.

The so-called ‘turban’ or ‘tower’ hairstyle characterises all three of the known portrait types for this empress, from the first type, characterised by a loose and soft hairdo (see the Ostia horrea portrait, Calza 1964, no. 143) to the third, deriving from the Dresden type or Typus mit Stirnhaarrosetten, characterised by a flat fringe divided into two symmetrical wavy sections, surmounted by two twisted locks forming rose-shaped buns (Fittschen, Zanker 1983, pp. 17 ff., no. 17).

The latter is in fact an evolution of the ‘diadem’ hairstyles, with a crown of plaits set around the head like a tiered headpiece, which was already recurrent in the portraits of the women of the Ulpia family; with Marciana, Trajan’s sister, the three-layer diadem came into fashion, as later attested in the images of the other female members of the imperial family and among the private portraits of the Trajan-Adrian age, which followed the standard model, varying its composition and the number of the ‘diadem’ bands, reduced or increased up to four. While the Hadrian age turbans are usually very wide and well fitted on the forehead, in the Antonine age they narrow and elongate to form a flared tower (Turmfrisur), narrower than the head, which characterises all three known portrait types of Faustina the Elder (Ambrogi 2013; Buccino 2017).

The more severe and restrained forms of Faustina the Elder’s hairstyle, compared to previous styles, are a reflection of a deliberate propagandistic narrative, alluding to the principles of order and moral rigour that the new course of the principate wanted to embody.

As for the dating of the Borghese portrait, the rendition of the turban, the use of the drill and its realistic and grand style, yet far removed from the late Hadrian age atmospheres, suggest its production might correspond to the central years of Antoninus Pius’s rule.

Jessica Clementi