SEVERAN PERIOD, CIRCA 220-230 A.D.

The Severan era ushered in a different, distinctive style of Roman portraiture. The proceeding Antonine dynasty preferred the highly idealized, almost other-worldly style pioneered in the Julio-Claudian era. The 3rd century saw a preference for frankness that harkens back more to Republican era realism than Augustan idealism. The present example exemplifies this new trend with the subject gazing up and to her left, perhaps looking at a now lost companion. Gone is the static perfection favored by earlier portraiture. Instead, this young woman is wholly present and interacting with her surroundings.