Terracotta Portrait Bust of a Roman Lady, 2nd Cent. AD: is she an Empress?

Pictures of the fragments of statuettes I think were toys:


A woman with holes for earrings.


A warrior with a hole in his fist to insert some weapon.

 

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Since it's said that empresses had a big influence on women's styles, especially hair styles, it makes sense that a 3D figurine of the empress would be available - I can't imagine anyone back then trying to copy a hairstyle from only a coin of an empress.

 

Thanks for your thoughts -- I like your artifacts! I agree that my portrait bust is unlikely to have been made for a single family or to portray a single patrician lady, given that such terracotta figurines, by virtue of being molded, are far more suited to a form of mass production than to the sculpting of a single figure. If a family were wealthy enough to hire someone to make a statue of the lady of the house, they could presumably afford to have it done in bronze or marble.

On the other hand, I think your two general categories -- relatively crude figurines made as children's toys, and crude religious/votive depictions of gods and goddesses -- may be too limiting to encompass a figure like mine. First, if I do say so myself, there's nothing remotely crude or "cheap" about it! (Although, given how precise the rendition is otherwise, particularly the hair, I still find the fact that one eye is clearly larger than the other to be rather mysterious. It's not as if she seems to be squinting the smaller eye.) Second, my figure seems more secular than religious to me. I doubt that it was intended to portray a goddess -- unless perhaps, as you suggest, it was the deified Faustina II herself! (The fact that it's a relatively late hairstyle, as @Roman Collector points out, might support that idea.)

If the intention was, in fact, primarily secular, then perhaps the figure would be somewhat reminiscent of the three Roman Egyptian terracottas from approximately the same period (originally published in 1921), currently for sale at Trocadero; see the links I posted above. Although those were obviously not intended to depict specific individuals like an empress; they're more for amusement -- like some of the Tanagra figures of comic actors, etc., from an earlier period.

Perhaps @Numisnewbiest has the right idea:

It makes sense to me as well, given the level of detail in the figure's hair. Copying from a coin would certainly be more difficult. (Perhaps there were also paintings or drawings available that showed the empresses' hair from different angles?) Such a model in terracotta might be especially useful out in the provinces -- in this case, Hadrumetum in northern Africa -- where people didn't get to see currently-fashionable hairstyles every day, like they did in Rome.

This terracotta head of mine, despite being centuries older, not quite as "fine" in detail, and unlikely to portray a specific individual, also has an elaborate hairstyle, and makes one wonder about its possible practical utility in that regard:

Greece, 4th/3rd Century BCE, Terracotta head of young woman with long neck and with elaborate coiffure, wearing stephane[?]. 3" high. Purchased 2018. Ex. Christie's (date unknown).








I doubt that this one was used as a model for hairstyles, though:

Greece, 5th-4th Century BCE, terracotta head of old man (comic/grotesque), 32 mm. high, 38 mm. from front to back of head. Purchased 1998.

 

Telecommunication companies want to be buddies with the Government, so they will give up a heck of a lot of information if a complaint knows the ip numbers, which we do for each message posted. No threat, just normal procedure. We do not like to do it, but we will if it affects the forum, so stay within our boundaries , Please, Jim

 

Thanks to our moderators, including @lordmarcovan, for deleting the insulting post by that troll!

 

Really cool artifacts! I have considered acquiring a few Greek pieces from time to time, but I have not nearly enough knowledge to identify a fake, repaired, or retouched ceramic from a photo, or how much restoration is OK vs not OK, so thus far I have been scared away.

 

It's considered ok to repair ancient pottery as long as the repairs are disclosed. Many pieces are assembled from fragments.

 

@DonnaML......Wonderful pieces Donna!...Maybe I've missed it in the other threads but are these last 2 examples hollow?...They look solid yes?

 

Hollow!