Miniature Portrait Bust of a Woman

This portrait of a young woman is remarkably realistic. The inlaid glass eyes, unusual for their fine state of preservation, give her a lifelike expression. Her earlobes are drilled for separately-made earrings, now missing. She wears her hair in the complicated braided and knotted style popular during the reign of the Augustus (27 B.C. – A.D. 14). Such detailing in the hair required much engraving and reworking of the head after it was cast.

The Romans had a long tradition of portraiture, which signaled the social status of both their subjects and those who commissioned them. On certain occasions throughout the year, portraits of ancestors were displayed in public, attesting to the long-standing importance of the family. Images of ancestors also played a significant part in funerary ritual. Miniature portraits such as this one were kept in the home to honor family members. This example probably stood in a lararium (private household shrine).