This portrait of a stern Trajanic matriarch has much in common with images of Trajan’s wife, the empress Plotina. Two ancient points of attachment in the front once held a marble addition representing the high crescent-shaped hairpiece fashionable during that period.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
body
head
left
right
head
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Marble portrait bust of a woman
Period:Trajanic
Date:ca. 100–120 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Marble
Dimensions:H. 22 5/8 in. (57.4 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1914
Object Number:14.130.7
Said to have been found in Rome
[Until 1914, with Paul Hartwig, Rome]; acquired in 1914, purchased from P. Hartwig.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. "Department of Classical Art: The Accessions of 1914." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10(2): p. 24, fig. 2.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 251, fig. 153, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 300–1, fig. 211, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 300–1, fig. 211, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1940. "A Rearrangement of Roman Portraits." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 35(10): p. 202.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1941. Roman Portraits, Vol. 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1948. Roman Portraits, 2nd edn. no. 63, p. iv, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Herrmann, Jr., J. J. 1991. "Rearranged Hair: A Portrait of a Women in Boston and Some Recarved Portraits of Earlier Imperial Times." Journal of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 3: pp. 47–48, fig. 20.
Varner, Eric R. 2000. From Caligula to Constantine : Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture p. 218 n. 7, Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.
Matheson, Susan B. 2000. "The Private Sector: Reworked Portraits Outside the Imperial Circle." From Caligula to Constantine : Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture, Eric R. Varner, ed. p. 73 n. 31, Atlanta, GA: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.
Bartman, Elizabeth. 2001. "Hair and the Artifice of Roman Female Adornment." American Journal of Archaeology, 105(1): p. 20 n. 106.
Zanker, Paul. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 75, pp. 191, 204–5, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. p. 328, 331, New York: Scala Publishers.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
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.