ANTONINE PERIOD, CIRCA MID-2ND CENTURY A.D.

This head shows a strong link to the portraits of Faustina Minor - in particular her first portrait type, where she is shown as a young empress after the birth of her first child, aged only 17 years old circa 147 A.D. The distinctive elaborate hairstyle with a central parting and four hair loops either side, plaits coiled around the sides and a bun at the back, held in place by a vertical plait is closely related to this well documented early portrait type. Her pierced lobes can just be seen underneath and she shows the lidded Antonine eye shape. Faustina Minor boasts an extraordinarily high number of known portrait types– as many as nine distinct versions. The concept of multiple portrait types for members of the Imperial household is a familiar one, yet Faustina Minor is an exceptionally well represented member of the Antonine Imperial household. Only Septimius Severus has more than Faustina Minor, with ten recognized types. As mirrored in contemporary numismatic evidence, a change in her official portrait corresponded with one of her many births, or another major life event. For this first portrait type, cf. D. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, Yale, 1992, p. 279, for the portrait of Faustina in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. For another in the Munich Glyptotech, see Arachne database no: 1094940.

Faustina Minor (the Younger), Annia Galeria Faustina, born circa 125-130 A.D., was the daughter of the Emperor Antoninus Pius and Faustina Major (the Elder). Her great uncle, the Emperor Hadrian, betrothed her to Lucius Verus. However, her father Antoninus favored his wife's nephew, Marcus Aurelius, to whom she was eventually married. Antoninus succeeded Hadrian as Emperor, and eventually Marcus Aurelius inherited the Antonine throne as co-Emperor with Lucius Verus, thereupon Faustina became Augusta or Empress. Faustina bore at least twelve children for the Emperor, only six of whom survived past youth. Five were girls, with the future Emperor Commodus the only male heir.