Miniature Portrait Bust of a Woman

Unknown

25 B.C.–A.D. 25

Bronze; glass-paste, Bronze

J. Paul Getty Museum

A bronze bust of a woman with inlaid eyes and a patina of green and brown. The bust is mounted on a circular bronze base. 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 an