Limestone.
Ca. 525-520 BCE.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
H 41 inches.
No Metropolitan catalogue cast no.
Cast Location: Robinson B 2nd floor

Archaic Cypriote woman, missing her head and feet. She wears jewelry and her garments are rich with decorative details. She stands in a frontal pose, her left arm by her side and her right arm in front of her chest, holding all that remains of what was probably a lotus flower or a mirror. In her left hand she holds flowers or branches. She wears a ruffle-sleeved chiton, a long kilt, and a robe or himation to just below the breasts. The hems and edges of the sleeves and robe have folds that are Archaic in style. She wears four necklaces: a choker with small beads and a pendant that looks like a flame or an animal's head; a second necklace of larger beads; and the third and fourth with raised acorn pendants and an animal-headed pendant. A long neck-chain with a lyre-shaped pendant from which four signet-ring seals are suspended falls to below her waist. Her fingers are long, the nails crafted with detail. On her right wrist she wears a rope-like bracelet with animal's heads at either end, on the left wrist, a plain bracelet. Apart from a hint of long hair and buttocks, the back of the sculpture is relatively flat and plain. This sculpture was carved at a time when Egyptian rule over Cyprus was about to end. Egyptian influence is evident in the jewelry, pose, long fingers, and the remnants of the lotus flower that she holds as an offering. The figure was found in a temple at Kourion on Cyprus and probably represents a worshipper or priestess of the cult of Hathor (The Great Goddess), to judge from the exquisite execution of her fine garments and opulent jewelry.

~ Lara Ayad


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See Luigi Cesnola, A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 2 vols. (New York, 1885), pl. XC; Vassos Karageorghis et al., Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2000), 119-122.]]> Origin unknown.
Greenish limestone.
Date unknown, perhaps 4th century BCE.
London, British Museum.
Restored H 12 1/2 in., W 12 in.
Maximum dimension of preserved fragment 10 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 1185b or 1186.

The shallow relief shows a griffin attacking a deer that he has brought down. His wings are spread, his claws are fixed in the deer's shoulder, and he opens his beak wide to deal the fatal blow. The upper border consists of a geometric maeander; the lower border appears to contain rosettes within squares. This small fragment was given to the British Museum by Algernon Percy (1792-1865), the fourth Duke of Northumberland.


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See A. H. Smith, Catalogue of Greek Sculpture in the British Museum, vol. I (London, 1892), 88, no. 215 or 216.]]> From Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, 1735.
Luni Marble.
130-138 CE.
Rome, Villa Albani
no. 994.
H 20 ½ in., W 16 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 986.

This famous relief shows a profile view of Antinoos (110-130 CE), a boy from Bithynia who was lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (ruled 117-138 CE). Antinoos is shown in a youthful idealized form, with thick curly short hair accented with a garland. In the restoration, he is partially draped in classical style, and he gazes at a garland that he holds in his left hand. In 130 CE Antinoos drowned mysteriously in the Nile, leaving a grief-stricken Hadrian, who promptly granted Antinoos an apotheosis. The emperor named a city after him (Antinoopolis), established a cult in his honor, his face was place on coins and medals, and statues and reliefs of him were scattered throughout the Roman empire to celebrate his memory. Usually Antinoos is depicted in the classical style. Images of him may bear a striking resemblance to one or more of the gods, such as Apollo, the god of truth, Dionysos, the god of wine, Vertumnus, the god of season and change, and even Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife. Discovered in Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli in 1735, the piece was first owned by Cardinal Alessandro Albani, who had the relief restored in 1736 and took it to his home, the Villa Albani, on the outskirts of Rome. The fanciful modern restorations are missing from this broken plaster cast. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who worked for Cardinal Albani, wrote enthusiastically about the relief. In 1798 the relief was taken as booty by the French and was recorded as being on display in the Musée in Paris in 1802-03. It was removed from the Musée in 1815 and returned to the Villa Albani.

~ Erin McGann and Stephanie LaSpada


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See Forschungen zur Villa Albani: Katalog der antiken Bildwerke I, ed. Peter C. Bol (Berlin, 1989), 336-338 and pls. 188-190; Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (New Haven, 1981); Sarah Waters, "The Most Famous Fairy in History: Antinous and Homosexual Fantasy," Journal of the History of Sexuality 6.2 (Oct 1995), 194-230; Johann Joachim Winckelmann, History of the Art of Antiquity, trans. Henry F. Mallgrave (Los Angeles, 2006), 43 n. 34, 65, 245, 341. Figure. 35. Fig. Drawing of Antinoos relief as restored in the Villa Albani. See J. J. Winckelmann, History of the Art of Antiquity, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave, p. 65 pl. 12.]]> Purchased in Rome in 1816.
Pentelic marble.
First century BCE.
Munich, Glyptothek.
H 30 1/2 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 871.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location: Concert Hall 2nd floor

The scene of which this relief is a part represents the wedding procession of Poseidon/Neptune and Amphitrite. In this part of the scene a nereid (sea-nymph) carrying a gift-box rides over the sea on a taurocamp with a snaky tail (half bull and half sea-creature). At one corner there is a pilaster. The right horn of the taurocamp and the left foot of the Nereid have been repaired in the plaster. According to Greek mythology, Poseidon wanted to marry the Nereid Thetis, but, upon learning that the child she bore would be greater than his father, he decided against it and instead pursued her sister Amphitrite to the Atlas Mountains, where she had hidden from him. He was successful in his courtship. Although Poseidon and Zeus had both been interested in Thetis, Zeus decided that Thetis should marry a mortal, and that was Peleus. Their son was Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War. This relief was discovered in the Campus Martius (Field of Mars) in Rome along with three other panels which were decorated with a marine procession of Tritons and Nereids celebrating the marriage of Poseidon and Amphitrite. They are now in Munich. This panel depicts a Nereid riding a sea-bull, bringing a present for the wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Another portion of the relief is in the Louvre. The reliefs are now thought to have decorated the base of a statue-group honoring the naval victories of Mark Antony. Additional sections of the relief, now in Paris, are made of a different kind of marble, and represent the taking of the census along with a sacrifice to Mars.
~Shellie Meeks


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See Raimund Wünsche, Glyptothek München: Meisterwerke Griechischer und Römischer Skulptur (Munich, 2005), 120-121; Adolf Furtwängler, Beschreibung der Glyptothek König Ludwigs I. zu München (Munich, 1910), 248-252, no. 239. Fig. 2 Figs. No. 34 before and after restoration by Nick Xhiku. Photos by Andrew Zimmerman.]]> Marble.
First century CE.
Rome, Palazzo Altemps.
H 45 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 976.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location: Johnson Ctr ground floor stairwell

This colossal head, known as the Ludovisi Juno (Hera) because it was owned by the Ludovisi family in Rome, has no known provenance to give an idea of the original setting for the statue. The end of the nose and the curls on the neck are restored in the marble. The colossal head may or may not represent a goddess. Its colossal size is meant to impress viewers. Furthermore, the face is without expression, without any indication of emotion or of age. The woman wears a 3-tiered diadem decorated with acanthus and palmette, a plain band, and a beaded string that falls down to entwine with the curls on her neck. The classical serenity of this face made Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wax poetic about its rare form. He acquired a plaster cast of the head for his personal collection. The hairstyle and diadem eventually led scholars to conclude that this is not a goddess, as was originally thought, but rather an idealized portrait of a member of Rome’s imperial family, perhaps Antonia Minor, the mother of the emperor Claudius (reigned 41-54 CE). Never officially deified, Antonia Minor was the direct link between Claudius and her deified uncle Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. The holes in the right cheek of the plaster cast were probably caused by drips that fell continuously on the face during storage.
~Madison Bolls


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See Matilde De Angelis d'Ossat, Scultura Antica in Palazzo Altemps: Museo Nazionale Romano (Milan, 2002), 183-185; Francesco Scoppola and Stella Diana Vordemann, Palazzo Altemps, trans. Edward Steinberg (Rome, 1997), 31. Fig. 33. Fig. Interior of no. 33 with 19th-century wooden support. Fig. No. 33 by Andrew Zimmerman.]]> From the Towneley collection.
Parian marble.
Probably 2nd century CE.
London, British Museum.
H 10 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 989.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 hallway

This young woman has wavy hair with a central parting, drawn back into an intricately woven knot at the nape of her neck, leaving only the lower earlobes exposed below the hair. There is no other ornament. The eyes are not incised, the nose is aquiline, and the cheeks are full. The general effect is one of control and serenity. The difficulty in identifying this woman is complicated by the tendency for portraits of Roman imperial women to resemble each other. Certain features of hairstyles that were fashionable among aristocratic women were imitated by women of other classes. As styles changed, the portrait sculptures were sometimes modified to reflect a more up-to-date coif. Individualized hairstyles make dating more difficult. In the British Museum catalogue, this head is tentatively identified as Faustina the Younger (c. 130-175 CE), the daughter of Antoninus Pius and wife of Marcus Aurelius. It is said to have been purchased from a private individual in Pozzuoli in 1771. When he was in residence in Italy between 1768 and 1772, the Englishman Charles Towneley (1737-1805), purchased most of the pieces in his collection. His sources there included old Roman collections, and objects from the Scottish painter Gavin Hamilton (d. 1797) and from the English banker Thomas Jenkins. Towneley left his collection to the British Museum, and a special building was constructed to hold it all.
~Ellen McV. Layman


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See Maxwell L. Anderson and Leila Nista, Roman Portraits in Context: Imperial and Private Likenesses from the Museo Nazionale Romano (Rome, 1988); Elizabeth Bartman, Portraits of Livia: Imaging the Imperial Woman in Augustan Rome (Cambridge, 1999); R. P. Hinks, Greek and Roman Portrait Sculpture (London, 1935), no. 64; Diana E. E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture (New Haven, 1992); A. H. Smith, Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities: British Museum, vol. III (London,1904), 161, no. 1905. Figure.]]> From the Towneley collection.
Marble.
Late first to early 2nd century CE.
London, British Museum.
H 14 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 983.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 hallway

The identification is pure conjecture, but a few portraits identified as Matidia bear some resemblance to this one, as do profile portraits of the deified Matidia on coins. One of the difficulties in identifying female portraits is that upper-class women wanted their images to resemble that of the current empress. But it also resembles portraits of her predecessors and of her daughter Sabina. The nose, ears, neck, and parts of the headdress are restored in the marble. Matidia (d. 119) was the niece of the emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 CE): she accompanied him on his campaigns in Dacia; and she was with him at his death. Her daughter Sabina married Hadrian (r. 117-138 CE), and Hadrian delivered Matidia's funeral oration and had his mother-in-law deified. The Egyptian city of Phyle was renamed after her, and the Basilica Matidiae was dedicated in her honor on the Campus Martius in Rome. Images of imperial family members served as an essential means of propaganda, and recognition of imperial likenesses was the visual key to continuity within each dynasty. Perhaps the most important element to consider in attempting to identify a female Roman portrait is the hairstyle. Complicated hairstyles communicated wealth and status: attendants; time; paid hairdressers or slaves; and money. This head is just over lifesize, a little flesh beneath the chin to show her maturity, and eyes punctuated with incised pupils and carved irises. Her classically oval face and heavy eyelids suggest that the head was produced during the reign of Hadrian, a great Hellenophile. Spiral curls frame the woman's face, and behind them a tiara of hair divides the style like a headband. The hair is roughly sectioned parallel to the head towards the nape of the neck, where there is a large coil of thin braids on the original, a feature that has broken off from the copy. Behind each ear, two soft tendrils trail down her neck. Roman women typically wore their hair long and "up." If elite Roman women desired wigs or hair extensions for buns/coils and braids, these were available. Hairstyles as complicated as Matidia's three-part up-do communicated wealth and status, requiring time, attendants, and money, to all of which Matidia had access. Spiral curls like these would have been achieved by the application of heat, perhaps held in place by pins, enhanced in sculpture by the boring drill. The mid-section of the hair - in three rows of square sections rolled forwards into thick pin-curls - serves as a diadem or tiara made from hair. The hair twists down the back of the head in what might be described as finger waves, stopping midway at a flattened area where a hairpiece would have been anchored by some type of round cinch, like a modern ponytail holder from which looser curls would have fallen onto the neck.
~Lucy R. Miller



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See: Author, ten years of practical experience as licensed hairdresser in Virginia; Elizabeth Bartman, "Hair and the Artifice of Female Adornment," American Journal of Archaeology 105 (2001), 1-25; Klaus Fittschen and Paul Zanker, Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom (Mainz, 1983), vol. 1 supplement 57, vol. 2 supplement, 16 a-d; Diana E.E. Kleiner and Fred S. Kleiner, review of Karin Polaschek, Porträttypen einer claudischen Kaiserin, American Journal of Archaeology 78 (1974), 444; P. A. Roche, "The Public Image of Trajan's Family," Classical Philology, 97 (2002), 55, 60; A. H. Smith, Catalog of Greek Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. III (London, 1904), 158, no. 1898; Max Wegner, Hadrian: Plotina, Marciana, Matidia, Sabina (Berlin, 1956), 80. Figure. Figure. No. 31 before cleaning.]]> (42 - 23 BCE).
Marble.
1st century BCE to 1st century CE.
Location unknown.
H 14 1/2 in.
Not in Metropolitan cast catalogue.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 hallway

The plaster head is broken from a bust, which may represent Marcellus, son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus. Marcellus had been meant to succeed Augustus, and had been married to Julia, the daughter of Augustus, but he died suddenly at the age of nineteen. His features in this portrait are unmistakably those of a member of the Augustan family. His hair is short and neatly coiffed, with a row of waves across a low forehead. His narrow face with high cheekbones closely resembles that of Augustus himself.


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See John Pollini, personal communication, May 2013. Figure.]]> Marble.
Mid-first-century CE, perhaps Claudian (41-54 CE).
Ravenna Museum.
H 48 in., W 60 in.
Not in Metropolitan cast catalogue.
Cast Location: Robinson B 2nd floor

This marble frieze fragment was uncovered during the sixteenth century at Ravenna near the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. The relief, which may come from an altar or monument-base, pays tribute to the Roman imperial family, at least two of whom are represented as gods. The individuals represented stand in a row facing forwards, and all of them are barefoot, a sure sign in Roman art of their being above our own level of existence. It is generally agreed that the figure at the far right is Augustus, the first emperor of Rome (r. 27 BCE - 14 CE), perhaps represented as Mars, god of war. He wears a wreath of oak leaves, and holds a staff and a short sword. He rests his left foot on a globe decorated with signs of the zodiac. To the left of Augustus stands his wife Livia dressed as Venus, goddess of love and mistress of Mars. A Cupid sits on her shoulder, and she wears a diadem. The identities of the other figures are uncertain, but they may be potential heirs of Augustus. If so, the central figure may be Germanicus, the brother of Claudius, turning towards his father, Drusus the Elder. The seated figure at the far left may be Drusus’ wife Antonia in the guise of Pietas, the goddess of duty. The lotus-and-palmette decoration on the bottom of the frieze matches that on Ravenna’s Porta Aurea, which was built during the reign of Claudius (Ad 41-54).



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See Elizabeth Bartman, Portraits of Livia (Cambridge ,UK, 1999); Richard Brilliant, Roman Art from the Republic to Constantine (London, 1974); Diana E. E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture (New Haven, 1992); C. Brian Rose, Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture in the Julio-Claudian Period (Cambridge, 1997); Inez Scott Ryberg, Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art (Rome, 1955); D. E. Strong, Roman Imperial Sculpture (London, 1961). Figure.]]> Carrara(?) marble.
113 CE.
Lateran Museum, Rome.
H 39 1/2 in., W 99 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 1300.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location: Concert Hall mezzanine 

The marble Temple of Venus Genetrix stood on a high podium at one end of the Forum of Julius Caesar. The temple had eight Corinthian columns across the front, and half-columns along the sides. Inside the temple were statues of Venus, Julius Caesar, and Cleopatra, as well as collections of paintings and of gems. Venus Genetrix was the Roman goddess of motherhood and fertility, and she was considered to be the ancestress of the Roman people. Julius Caesar claimed direct descent from Venus Genetrix and Aeneas. Thus the temple really honored Venus Genetrix and Julius Caesar. This temple and the Forum of Julius Caesar were dedicated in 46 BCE. Damaged by fire around 80 CE, the temple was rebuilt by Trajan in 113 CE, to judge from the dedication. This section of the frieze, with scrolls and acanthus leaves carved in high relief, and a few other remains are all that survive: the temple itself is in ruin.
~Lindsay Simmons


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See Grove Art Online, "Forum Julium," 10 Dec. 2004. http://mutex.gmu.edu:2180/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=150258 047&hitnum=3&section=art.073229.5.2.1 Figure. Figure. Detail of no. 28 by Andrew Zimmerman.]]>