Marble portrait of Matidia Minor
This head originally belonged to an honorary portrait statue of Mindia Matidia, or Matidia Minor (A.D. 85–162), half-sister of Sabina, wife of the emperor Hadrian, and aunt of the emperor Antoninus Pius. There exist five other replicas of this portrait type, recognized by a recently discovered statue of Matidia Minor from the Roman theater at Suessa Aurunca, a Campanian town of which she was a major benefactor. As is common with members of the imperial family, she is portrayed with an idealized, youthful face, and styling a complex coiffure that includes a hairpiece in the shape of braids coiled on top of her head. Her upward gaze is characteristic of many portraits from the Antonine period onward.
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