FLAVIAN PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT BUST OF A YOUNG LADY
FLAVIAN PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 1ST CENTURY A.D.
Her youthful face turned slightly to the right, with large, lidded, almond-shaped eyes, her hair arranged in an elaborate arching haloed coiffure composed of rows of deeply-drilled tiny curls, combed forwards from a parting running across the crown of the head, behind which the hair is combed back, set in multiple plaits and twisted into a large bun at the back of the head, wearing a V-neck stola with a palla draped over her shoulders, set on an integral socle

23 ½ in. (59.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Private collection, Switzerland, acquired prior to 1966.

Special Notice

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Lot Essay

The dramatic emergence of the Flavian dynasty after the chaos of 69 A.D. was echoed in the extraordinary shift in women's hairstyles. Simply put, 'women strove to pile their hair higher and higher upon their heads' (D. E. E. Kleiner & S. B. Matheson, I Claudia, Woman in Ancient Rome, Yale, 1996, p. 169). 'Manifestly self-concious and flamboyant' (ibid.), these coiffures were costly, time-consuming and difficult to maintain - an ideal way, therefore, to instantly impart to the viewer the wealth and life of leisure enjoyed by the subject.

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