The woman's hairstyle closely resembles that found on life-sized marble portraits of Roman matrons of the period, who closely followed the fashions of the imperial court.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Chalcedony portrait bust of a young woman
Period:Mid-Imperial, Hadrianic or early Antonine
Date:ca. 130–140 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Chalcedony
Dimensions:H. 3 9/16 in. (9 cm)
Classification:Gems
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1907
Object Number:07.286.125
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1920. Catalogue of Engraved Gems of the Classical Style. no. 403, p. 188, pl. 75, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1948. Roman Portraits, 2nd edn. no. 80, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1956. Catalogue of Engraved Gems of the Classical Style: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman. no. 655, p. 131, pl. 74, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
Megow, Wolf-Rüdiger. 1987. Kameen von Augustus bis Alexander Severus, Antike Münzen und geschnittene Steine, XI, Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, ed. no. F 5, p. 310, pl. 44.6, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
Bergmann, Bettina and Wendy M. Watson. 1999. The Moon and the Stars: Afterlife of a Roman Empress. no. 9, p. 26, South Hadley: Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.
Dahmen, Karsten. 2001. Untersuchungen zu Form und Funktion kleinformatiger Porträts der römischen Kaiserzeit. no. 199, p. 197, pl. 199, Münster: Scriptorium.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 2006[1956]. Catalogue of Engraved Gems of the Classical Style: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman, 2nd edn. no. 655, p. 131, pl. 74, color pl. 23, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
Draper, James David. 2008. "Cameo Appearances." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 65(4): p. 16, fig. 24.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.