Statue of a Woman Wearing a Mantle with a Portrait Head

Roman art

The figure, standing on her left leg, wears a chiton with sleeves and a mantle covering her body, falling in thick folds from her left arm which is stretched forward with a bowl used for sacrifices, a patera, in her hand, while her right arm is folded to her chest. This statuary type is reminiscent of one recurring from the mid-fifth century BCE onwards for the representation of the goddesses Demeter or Kore, which was extensively adopted from the Hellenistic age onwards for portrait statues. The Borghese statue, stylistically ascribable to the Antonine period, was reused in the third century for honorary purposes and, at that time, given its current portrait head; it is particularly the hairdo, with soft wavy locks divided into two bands and falling down over the neck and the thick plait that extends from the nape of the neck arranged in a ring shape on top of the head, that suggest this piece might date to the last quarter of the third century, in the day of empress Ulpia Severina (270-275).

Object details

Commentary

The sculpture, whose provenance is unknown, is first described in Antonio Nibby’s 1832 guidebook in Room VIII, where it remained on display until the mid-twentieth century, when it was moved to Room V. The figure stands on her left leg, with the right slightly bent forward. The body is covered by a thickly pleated chiton with sleeves with a himation covering the body and draped in thick folds falling from over the left arm, which is extended forward holding a patera; the right arm is drawn close to the chest. The statuary type is reminiscent of that of Demeter or Kore attested from the mid-fifth century BCE (see Conservatori-Corinth type, Beschi 1988, p. 852, no. 53), although the stylistic treatment suggests an early Hellenistic reworking. The overall rhythm of the figure and its texture are in fact comparable to some iconic statues from Megara (Horn 1931, p. 95, pl. 42) and to an iconic neo-classical statue from Cyrene (Traversari 1960, pp. 32-33 no. 8, pl. I, 3), while the execution technique, particularly of the plinth, suggests this particular Borghese sculpture may have been made during the Antonine age (Blanck 1969).

In the third century CE, the statue was repurposed to serve an honorary function: on this occasion – as suggested by the encrusted plug placed at the suture between the head and the body – a portrait head datable to the last quarter of the third century was applied. The plump face, with a full shape and lips, is characterised by heavy eyelids and a downward gaze.

The softly wavy hair is divided into two bands leaving the ears uncovered, falling on the neck, while a large braid from the nape of the neck is set in a ring-shaped bun on the top of the head. The fashion of the braid from the nape of the neck to the top of the head (the so-called Scheitelzopf Frisur, literally ‘hairdo with a braid parting’) was in fashion at the time of empresses Furia Sabina Tranquillina and Marcia Otacilia Severa, wives of Gallienus III and Philip the Arab, while the version of this style extending beyond the occiput was particularly in vogue in the Gallienic period, as can be seen in the portraits of Cornelia Supera and Cornelia Salonina. Starting around the mid-third century, the braid became longer and was used to create a ring shape on top of the head, as documented by the monetary portraits of Ulpia Severina, wife of Aurelian and Magnia Urbica, wife of Carinu. During the second half of the third century this style evolved into increasingly voluminous solutions, eventually leading to a turban-like structure made with a thick plait rolled on top of the head as if it were a length of fabric (Bergman 1977, pp. 182 ff.; Buccino 2011, p. 378 ff.). The most striking analogies can be found with a portrait in Palazzo Doria, in which the voluminous plait is paired with slightly wavy hair divided in two bands on the forehead and loose curls at the hairline (inv. EA 2316, Calza 1977, p. 304, no. 376). In the Borghese portrait we can perhaps recognise a private portrait of the age of empress Ulpia Severina (270-275), whose hairstyle, only known from coin profiles, is imitated here (Bergman 1977, p. 185 ff.; Varner 2008, pp. 196-197).

Jessica Clementi