During the last quarter of the first century A.D. and the early decades of the second century A.D., ever more complex hair arrangements were developed for the ladies of the imperial court. Hairpieces with added hair and concealed frameworks formed high diadem-like structures surrounding the face. One of the most elaborate constructions appears on the official portraits of Marciana, the elder sister of Trajan. The high polish and engraved eyes on this head suggest that it was carved during the Hadrianic period. The powerful women of Trajan’s family were much honored by his successor, Hadrian, who is said to have owed his throne to their influence. Marciana was the grandmother of Hadrian’s wife, Sabina.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Marble portrait of Marciana, sister of the emperor Trajan
Period:Hadrianic
Date:ca. 130–138 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Marble
Dimensions:H. 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1920
Object Number:20.200
Until 1919, collection of the 2nd Lord Swansea, Singleton Abbey, Swansea; October 15, 1919, sold through Knight, Frank & Rutley, Swansea; [until 1920, with Yanakopoulos, Paris]; acquired in 1920, purchased from Yanakopoulos.
Pinney, Margaret E. 1924. "Miscellaneous Greek and Roman Sculptures." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19(8): p. 194, fig. 2.
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. 66, pp. iv–v, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 99, p. 130, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jucker, Ines. 1995. Skulpturen der Antiken-Sammlung Ennetwies, Band 2. pp. 29 n. 1, 30 n. 6, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Fittschen, Klaus. 1996. "Courtly Portraits of Women in the Era of the Adoptive Emperors (98-180 A.D.) and their Reception in Roman Society." I Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome, Prof. Diana Kleiner and Susan B. Matheson, eds. p. 42, fig. 3, New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery.
Bartman, Elizabeth. 2001. "Hair and the Artifice of Roman Female Adornment." American Journal of Archaeology, 105(1): p. 11, pl. 1.
Zanker, Paul. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 78, pp. 191, 210–12, 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. no. 170, pp. 328, 332–33, New York: Scala Publishers.
D'Ambra, Eve. 2020. "Ideal Beauty and Adornment : A Roman Portrait of a Young Woman." EuGeStA : Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity, 10: pp. 217, 230, fig. 8.
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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.
