Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Woman
Unknown Artist
280–90 CE
Medium
marble
Dimensions
33.2 × 20 × 14 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1965.246
About this artwork
These busts are thought to have been unearthed with the Good Shepherd and Jonah sculptures. The nearly identical facial characteristics of each sitter—three males and three females—suggest that the same man and woman was represented three times. Although the intended function of the busts remains unknown, they probably represent a husband and wife. The portraits have been dated stylistically, as well as by costume and hairstyle, to the AD 270s. One of the men wears a paludamentum, or fringed clo...