Livia

Seated sculpture of the empress Livia from the Julio-Claudian dynasty, wife of Emperor Augustus and mother of Emperor Tiberius. She is wearing a double chiton, tunic and is wrapped in a himation, a cloak covering her head. With a parting down the middle, her hair is styled in two parallel waves on both sides that is gathered at the back in a high bun (the so called ‘Salus’ hairstyle) As well as the cloak on her head, the empress wore a diadem, symbols of divinity. Livia sought to express her dignity through these features, in order to follow in the footsteps of her husband Augustus, now dead, and, like him, achieve divinity. Here, the immortal Livia serves as a representative example of imperial propaganda and of the official prototype of the monumental sculptures found throughout the Empire.