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Lot Essay
The individual depicted here is shown with the distinctive helmfrisur: her centrally-parted hair is crimped, smoothly cascading over her ears and twisting into a flat oval chignon on the back of her head. There is a section of protruding hair to the left side of her forehead, showing that the coiffure was a wig, a style common during in the late 2nd- early 3rd century A.D. The chignon is only partially carved, suggesting that this portrait was intended for placement in a niche. For a closely related example of the helmfrisur, see no. 21 in F. Johansen, Roman Portraits III.
C. Trümpler-Ris proposed that this woman can be identified as Julia Soemias, the mother of Emperor Elagabalus, who ruled 218-222 A.D. (see I. Jucker and D. Willers, eds., op. cit.). Elagabalus, a young emperor of Syrian origin, had a notorious reputation for sexual excesses and was strongly disliked by both the Senate and the people. He and his mother met untimely deaths at the hands of the Praetorian Guard and afterwards, both their images were condemned to damnatio memoriae, which possibly explains the losses to her forehead, cheeks, nose and chin.
However, as E. Varner (op. cit., 2001) notes, the mutilation of damnatio memoriae typically also includes the mouth area, which this portrait has not been subjected to. Jucker and Willers, eds., op. cit, write that despite this, nothing speaks against an attribution of this splendid head to Julia Soemias. The vandalization that images of Soemias underwent has meant that it is extremely difficult to securely identify her portraits, leaving coinage as the main source for her personal style (see the silver denarius, no. 374 in A. Pangerl, ed., Portraits, 500 Years of Roman Coin Portraits).
C. Trümpler-Ris proposed that this woman can be identified as Julia Soemias, the mother of Emperor Elagabalus, who ruled 218-222 A.D. (see I. Jucker and D. Willers, eds., op. cit.). Elagabalus, a young emperor of Syrian origin, had a notorious reputation for sexual excesses and was strongly disliked by both the Senate and the people. He and his mother met untimely deaths at the hands of the Praetorian Guard and afterwards, both their images were condemned to damnatio memoriae, which possibly explains the losses to her forehead, cheeks, nose and chin.
However, as E. Varner (op. cit., 2001) notes, the mutilation of damnatio memoriae typically also includes the mouth area, which this portrait has not been subjected to. Jucker and Willers, eds., op. cit, write that despite this, nothing speaks against an attribution of this splendid head to Julia Soemias. The vandalization that images of Soemias underwent has meant that it is extremely difficult to securely identify her portraits, leaving coinage as the main source for her personal style (see the silver denarius, no. 374 in A. Pangerl, ed., Portraits, 500 Years of Roman Coin Portraits).