Images of Roman empresses abound, appearing on coins, in relief and architectural sculpture, in cameos, and other small-scale luxury items. Elite women were often the benefactors of their cities and were honored with sculptural dedications in public spaces.

Unearthed in 1711, the Herculaneum Women were the first significant finds at ancient Herculaneum, and they are among the best preserved of all the sculptures found there. Their discovery and legacy were explored in the recent exhibition The Herculaneum Women and the Origins of Archaeology.

Roman sculpture’s strengths include portraiture, where they were less concerned with the ideal than the Greeks or Ancient Egyptians and created exceptionally characterful pieces, and narrative relief scenes.

2019年9月2日 · Portraits of elite Roman women tended to be far less realistic than their male counterparts, as they were commissioned to emphasize female beauty and the latest fashions rather than veristic portrayals.

2020年10月4日 · These seven women represent fascinating examples of the experiences of women in ancient Rome. Read on to discover the amazing details of their lives.

2022年7月21日 · The Roman bust sculpture is of an elite Roman woman that is believed to be of the Flavian dynasty (69 – 96 CE). Female Roman statues were typically portrayed with less detail and their portraits were often less realistic and more general.

2023年1月18日 · Ancient Roman statues in the Museo archeologico nazionale (Venice) - Female funerary statue, small Herculaneum type (8 F)

Heralding the discovery of ancient Herculaneum, the sculptures are known today as the Large and Small Herculaneum Women. The excavation of these images of ideal female beauty triggered nearly three centuries of archaeological exploration at Herculaneum and nearby Pompeii.

In the second century CE, funerary statues of individual women depicted in the guise of Venus: the goddess’s sublime body typically joins individualized heads of Roman matrons. The women so portrayed were literally shown as the present-day embodiment of the peerless goddess of love.

Among the Romans, this statue type was widely used for sculptures of female deities such as Juno (the Greek Hera), the consort of Jupiter (the Greek Zeus), as well as for portraits of empresses and other prominent women.