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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 8130295, member: 110350&quot;]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.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the other hand, I think your two general categories -- relatively crude figurines made as children&#039;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&#039;s nothing remotely crude or &quot;cheap&quot; about it!&nbsp; (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&#039;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&#039;s a relatively late hairstyle, as [USER=75937]@Roman Collector[/USER] points out, might support that idea.)</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;re more for&nbsp; amusement -- like some of the Tanagra figures of comic actors, etc., from an earlier period.</p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps [USER=99613]@Numisnewbiest[/USER] has the right idea:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It makes sense to me as well, given the level of detail in the figure&#039;s hair. Copying from a coin would certainly be more difficult. (Perhaps there were also paintings or drawings available that showed the empresses&#039; hair from different angles?)&nbsp; Such a model in terracotta might be especially useful out in the provinces -- in this case, Hadrumetum in northern Africa -- where people didn&#039;t get to see currently-fashionable hairstyles every day, like they did in Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>This terracotta head of mine, despite being centuries older, not quite as &quot;fine&quot; 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:</p><p><br /></p><p>Greece, 4th/3rd Century BCE, Terracotta head of young woman with long neck and with elaborate coiffure, wearing stephane[?]. 3&quot; high. Purchased 2018. Ex. Christie&#039;s (date unknown).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/ancient-greek-terracotta-head-of-woman-detail-2-jpg.1241207/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/ancient-greek-terracotta-head-of-woman-detail-4-jpg.1241208/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/ancient-greek-terracotta-head-of-woman-detail-3-jpg.1241210/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I doubt that this one was used as a model for hairstyles, though:</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/greek-terracotta-head-of-old-man-comic-grotesque-face-forward-three-quarters-jpg.1241189/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/greek-terracotta-comic-head-grotesque-of-old-man-right-profile-jpg.1241194/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/greek-terracotta-head-of-comic-old-man-grotesque-profile-left-jpg.1241195/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/greek-terracotta-head-of-old-man-comic-grotesque-face-forward-jpg.1241206/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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