{"type":"artobject","objectid":32576,"objectnumber":"y1980-10","sortnumber":"1980 10y","displaytitle":"Portrait head of a woman","department":"Ancient, Byzantine, and Islamic Art","classification":"Sculpture","datebegin":98,"dateend":117,"datecomputed":108,"daterange":"A.D. 1-500","displaydate":"98–117 CE","medium":"Bronze with silver inlay","dimensions":"32.8 × 17.4 × 20.4 cm (12 15/16 × 6 7/8 × 8 1/16 in.)\r\nbase: 15.3 × 15.5 × 15.5 cm (6 × 6 1/8 × 6 1/8 in.)","dimensionsproposed":"","creditline":"Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund","markings":null,"inscribed":null,"signed":null,"catalograisonne":null,"creditlinerepro":"","restrictions":null,"nowebuse":"False","secondaryobjectnumber":null,"campuscollections":"false","on_view":true,"accessionyear":"1980-01-01","newaccession":0,"titles":[{"title":"Portrait head of a woman","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"makers":[],"depicted":[],"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"

Excavated at Chiavenna in 1879 at the house of the Count Salis Soglio;1912 sold by Alfredo Barsanti to Guiseppe Sangiorgi; acquired from the above in Rome, no later than August 1921, by Ernest Brummer who, together with his brother Joseph Brummer, imported it to the United States in that year; by 1946 with Fahim Kouchakji; on loan to Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum, March-November 1950; 1953, possibly on loan to Yale University; in 1969 at auction with Sotheby's, London, lot 81; in 1978 was at auction at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, listed as Kouchakji Estate, acquired by Stanley Moss; purchased from Stanley Moss & Co., New York, by the Princeton University Art Museum.



","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"This bronze portrait of an elderly woman was found at Chiavenna, near Lake Como, in 1879. Her hairnet, which has been laid over her elaborate set of braids, is especially striking. Visible losses to parts of the hairnet, especially to the left of the woman’s crown, suggest that a real net was used to create this piece. Using the lost-wax method of bronze casting, the sculptor would have applied the yarn netting on top of a wax version of the face and then covered the wax with clay to form a mold. The losses were created when fibers of the net became stuck in the layer of clay, preventing their form from being transferred to the final bronze. Toward the woman’s neck, further sections of untranslated net can be seen, but here the sculptor added incised lines to disguise the loss.","remarks":"MED2_22_CLA.pdf – Day One Cataloguing"}],"media":[{"id":3383,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1980-10","isprimary":0,"rank":2,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Luna Digitization Project"},{"id":3384,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1980-10_OBL","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Luna Digitization Project"}],"hasimage":"true","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 91","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"},{"boilertext":"E. Bartman, \"Hair and the artifice of Roman female adornment\", American journal of archaeology 105, no. 1 (Jan., 2001): p. 1-25.","citation":"E. Bartman, \"Hair and the artifice of Roman female adornment\", American journal of archaeology 105, no. 1 (Jan., 2001): p. 1-25., p. 14; pl. 2; p. 16 (illus.)","date":2001,"id":29,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/507324"},{"boilertext":"J. Michael Padgett, ed., Roman sculpture in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University,  2001).","citation":"J. Michael Padgett, ed., Roman sculpture in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University,  2001)., p. 40-43; cat. no. 9","date":2001,"id":2140,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/47868668"},{"boilertext":"Eve D'Ambra, \"Style from Below in the Roman Empire: A Bust of a Matron at the J. Paul Getty Museum,\" Getty Research Journal, no. 15 (2022): 1-24.","citation":"Eve D'Ambra, \"Style from Below in the Roman Empire: A Bust of a Matron at the J. Paul Getty Museum,\" Getty Research Journal, no. 15 (2022): 1-24.","date":2022,"id":9781,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/9396218949"},{"boilertext":"

Important Egyptian, Classical and Western Asiatic antiquities: fine ancient and Islamic glass from the collection of Wheaton College: Dec. 14, 1978, (New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., 1978).

","citation":"

Important Egyptian, Classical and Western Asiatic antiquities: fine ancient and Islamic glass from the collection of Wheaton College: Dec. 14, 1978, (New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., 1978).

, no. 274 (color illus.)","date":1978,"id":2241,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/171422793"},{"boilertext":"Patricia E. Mottahedeh, \"The Princeton bronze portrait of a woman with reticulatum\", in Arthur Houghton, ed., Festschrift für Leo Mildenberg: Numismatik, Kunstgeschichte, Archäologie, (Wetteren: Editions NR, 1984). ","citation":"Patricia E. Mottahedeh, \"The Princeton bronze portrait of a woman with reticulatum\", in Arthur Houghton, ed., Festschrift für Leo Mildenberg: Numismatik, Kunstgeschichte, Archäologie, (Wetteren: Editions NR, 1984). , p. 193-210; pls. 29-30.","date":1984,"id":2242,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/432587841"},{"boilertext":"

Carol C. Mattusch, with contributions by Beryl Barr-Sharrar, et. al., The fire of Hephaistos: large classical bronzes from North American collections, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1996).

","citation":"

Carol C. Mattusch, with contributions by Beryl Barr-Sharrar, et. al., The fire of Hephaistos: large classical bronzes from North American collections, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1996).

, p. 58; color pl. 7; p. 293-96; cat. no. 39","date":1996,"id":2243,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/312207428"},{"boilertext":"A.J.N.W. Prag and R.A.H. Neave, \"Who is the 'Carian Princess?,'\" in ed. Jacob Isager, Hekatomnid Caria and the Ionian Renaissance: acts of the International Symposium at the Department of Greek and Roman Studies, Odense University, 28-29 November, 1991, (Odense: Odense University Press, 1994). ","citation":"A.J.N.W. Prag and R.A.H. Neave, \"Who is the 'Carian Princess?,'\" in ed. Jacob Isager, Hekatomnid Caria and the Ionian Renaissance: acts of the International Symposium at the Department of Greek and Roman Studies, Odense University, 28-29 November, 1991, (Odense: Odense University Press, 1994). , p. 104-105; fig. 14","date":1994,"id":2244,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/801031590"},{"boilertext":"A.J.N.W. Prag and R.A.H Neave, Making faces: using forensic evidence and archaeological evidence, (London: British Museum Press, 1997). ","citation":"A.J.N.W. Prag and R.A.H Neave, Making faces: using forensic evidence and archaeological evidence, (London: British Museum Press, 1997). , p. 215; fig. 6","date":1997,"id":2245,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/422395890"},{"boilertext":"C.C. Vermeule, \"Faces of empire (Julius Caesar to Justinian)\", Celator 19, no. 11 (Nov., 2005).","citation":"C.C. Vermeule, \"Faces of empire (Julius Caesar to Justinian)\", Celator 19, no. 11 (Nov., 2005)., p. 28; fig. 18.","date":2005,"id":2246,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/38069754"},{"boilertext":"Carlo Albizzati, \"Ritratto femminile dell'eta di Traiano,\" Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia 15 (ser. 2) (1920): p. 291-359.","citation":"Carlo Albizzati, \"Ritratto femminile dell'eta di Traiano,\" Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia 15 (ser. 2) (1920): p. 291-359., p. 291-307 (Illus.)","date":1921,"id":2247,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/963563602"},{"boilertext":"Kurt Kluge and Karl Lehmann Hartleben, Die Antiken Grossbronzen, (Berlin; Leipzig: Verlag von Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1927).","citation":"Kurt Kluge and Karl Lehmann Hartleben, Die Antiken Grossbronzen, (Berlin; Leipzig: Verlag von Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1927)., Vol. 1: p. 240-241","date":1927,"id":2248,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/192114988"},{"boilertext":"An exhibition of ancient sculpture, Fogg Art Museum, May-June 1950, (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, 1950).","citation":"An exhibition of ancient sculpture, Fogg Art Museum, May-June 1950, (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, 1950)., cat. no. 42","date":1950,"id":2249,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/921047602"},{"boilertext":"

2500 years of Italian art and civilization: sculpture, painting, decorative arts, (Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1957).

","citation":"

2500 years of Italian art and civilization: sculpture, painting, decorative arts, (Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1957).

, no. 28, fig. 11;","date":1957,"id":2251,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/83319585"},{"boilertext":"Michael Milkovich, Roman portraits: a loan exhibition of Roman sculpture and coins from the first century B.C. through the fourth century A.D.: April 6-May 14, 1961, (Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum, 1961).","citation":"Michael Milkovich, Roman portraits: a loan exhibition of Roman sculpture and coins from the first century B.C. through the fourth century A.D.: April 6-May 14, 1961, (Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum, 1961)., cat. no. 18 (illus.)","date":1961,"id":2252,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/460172935"},{"boilertext":"

Catalogue of Egyptian, Western Asiatic, Irish Bronze Age, Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Anglo-Saxon antiquities, ancient glass and jewellery, Islamic pottery and metalwork: including a highly important Roman bronze head of a woman, 2nd century A.D.: day of sale: Tuesday, 1st July, 1969, (London: Sotheby and Co., 1969).

","citation":"

Catalogue of Egyptian, Western Asiatic, Irish Bronze Age, Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Anglo-Saxon antiquities, ancient glass and jewellery, Islamic pottery and metalwork: including a highly important Roman bronze head of a woman, 2nd century A.D.: day of sale: Tuesday, 1st July, 1969, (London: Sotheby and Co., 1969).

, cat. no. 81 (Illus.)","date":1969,"id":2253,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/634693133"},{"boilertext":"Pieter Meyers, \"The Use of Scientific Techniques in Provenance Studies of Ancient Bronzes\" in Marion True and Jerry Podany, eds., Small bronze sculpture from the ancient world: papers delivered at a symposium, (Malibu, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1990). ","citation":"Pieter Meyers, \"The Use of Scientific Techniques in Provenance Studies of Ancient Bronzes\" in Marion True and Jerry Podany, eds., Small bronze sculpture from the ancient world: papers delivered at a symposium, (Malibu, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1990). , p. 238-40","date":1990,"id":2254,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/22109705"},{"boilertext":"

Rodolfo Lanciani, Federico Mermanin and Roberto Paribeni, “Sull’ autenticità di una testa di bronzo”, Ausonia: rivista della Società italiana di archeologia e storia dell’arte 9 (1919).

","citation":"

Rodolfo Lanciani, Federico Mermanin and Roberto Paribeni, “Sull’ autenticità di una testa di bronzo”, Ausonia: rivista della Società italiana di archeologia e storia dell’arte 9 (1919).

, p. 123-138","date":1919,"id":2255,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/469758639"},{"boilertext":"Molly M. Linder, Portraits of the Vestal Virgins, priestesses of Ancient Rome, (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2015).","citation":"Molly M. Linder, Portraits of the Vestal Virgins, priestesses of Ancient Rome, (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2015)., fig. 68","date":2015,"id":1514,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/948967501"},{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 91 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"},{"boilertext":"Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986)","citation":"Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 43 (illus.)","date":1986,"id":1899,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/14244748"},{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1980\", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 40, no. 1 (1981): p. 14-31.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1980\", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 40, no. 1 (1981): p. 14-31., p. 19; p. 18 (illus)","date":1981,"id":3490,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774603"},{"boilertext":"Ian Jenkins and Dyfri Williams, \"A bronze portrait head and its hair net\", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 46, no. 2 (1987): p. 8-15.","citation":"Ian Jenkins and Dyfri Williams, \"A bronze portrait head and its hair net\", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 46, no. 2 (1987): p. 8-15., p. 9-10; figs. 1-4","date":1987,"id":3122,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774595"}],"exhibitions":[{"exhibitionid":961,"citation":"An Educated Eye: The Princeton University Art Museum Collection (Friday, February 22, 2008 - Sunday, June 15, 2008)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2008-02-22","enddate":"2008-06-15","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/961"}],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place made: Europe, Italy, Lake Como","code":"Place made","continent":"Europe","subcontinent":null,"country":null,"region":"Italy","state":null,"city":null,"county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":"Lake Como","locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":"http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_46.008_9.261.html","location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"terms":[{"id":2054791,"term":"sculpture","aatid":300047090,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2036723,"term":"Roman (style or period)","aatid":300020533,"termtype":"Period / Style"},{"id":2055098,"term":"bronzes","aatid":300047333,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2036747,"term":"Trajanic","aatid":300107348,"termtype":"Period / Style"},{"id":2055723,"term":"portraits","aatid":300015637,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2088280,"term":"women","aatid":300025943,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2088510,"term":"matrons","aatid":300237069,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2088122,"term":"elderly","aatid":300025913,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2158086,"term":"heads","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2162099,"term":"bronze","aatid":300010957,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2162319,"term":"silver","aatid":300011029,"termtype":"Materials"}],"classifications":[{"id":2054791,"classification":"sculpture"},{"id":2055098,"classification":"bronzes"}],"cultures":[{"id":13442,"culture":"Roman","alphasort":"Roman","begindate":0,"enddate":0,"displayculture":"Roman","displaydate":null}],"cultureterms":[],"periods":[{"id":13452,"period":"Trajanic","alphasort":"Trajanic","begindate":98,"enddate":117,"displayperiod":"Trajanic","displaydate":null}],"periodterms":[{"id":2036723,"period":"Roman (style or period)"},{"id":2036747,"period":"Trajanic"}],"attribute_groups":[{"id":2199316,"term":"Ancient Mediterranean Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"32.80"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"17.40"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"20.40"},{"element":"base","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"15.31"},{"element":"base","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"15.47"},{"element":"base","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"15.47"}],"packages":[{"packageid":181973,"name":"web_2020_Ancient"},{"packageid":267508,"name":"Web_CA_2025_AncientMediterranean"},{"packageid":195745,"name":"PUAM_World Cultures"},{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":182067,"name":"web_2020_ancient_italy-earlyroman"},{"packageid":231040,"name":"2023_HUM216/217_09_22"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":216638,"name":"2022_HUM216/217_10_14"},{"packageid":185788,"name":"CRS_2020_ABI Highlights 2020"},{"packageid":193144,"name":"PUAM_Expressing Culture_Ancient Mediterranean"},{"packageid":220207,"name":"Gallery_22(Pavilion6)-AncientMed"},{"packageid":204035,"name":"Teaching Kit Reproductions 8 1/2 x 11"}],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1980-10_OBL"],"displaymaker":null,"displayculture":"Roman","displayperiod":"Trajanic","caption":"Roman, Trajanic, Italy, 98–117 CE, Portrait head of a woman. Bronze with silver inlay; 32.8 × 17.4 × 20.4 cm, 15.3 × 15.5 × 15.5 cm (base). Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund (y1980-10)","captionhtml":"Roman, Trajanic, Italy, 98–117 CE, Portrait head of a woman. Bronze with silver inlay; 32.8 × 17.4 × 20.4 cm, 15.3 × 15.5 × 15.5 cm (base). Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund (y1980-10)","published_date":"2026-02-11 10:30:16.563572","campusart":[{"campuscollections":"false","campusart":0,"neighborhood":null,"lat":null,"lon":null}],"extended_content":true}