Portrait of Tranquillina (?)
- Date de création
- Approximately 241 - 244
- Material
- Göktepe marble, district 3 (Turkey)
- Dimensions
- H. 50 x l. 34 x P. 21,5 (cm)
- Inventory number
- Ra 166
The pleated tunic, fastened on the right shoulder by means of small buttons, is very soft and delicate-looking, and a cloak forms a large semicircle that enhances the portrait. The pitted surface at the back of the neck proves that the lower part of the chignon was added separately.
There are ten such portraits of the same type, kept in Rome, Copenhagen, Dresden, Florence, Liverpool and London, which proves that this is indeed the representation of an imperial figure. This very young woman, with her melancholy expression, has sometimes been identified as Otacilia Severa, wife of Emperor Philip the Arab, but it is more likely that of Tranquillina, wife of Gordian III (238-244). She was married to the emperor in 241, and died just three years later, while still very young. She was not condemned to oblivion (damnatio memoriae) after her demise, which probably explains the existence of replicas, numerous for that time, and still extant.
According to E. Rosso 2006, L’image de l’empereur en Gaule romaine, portraits et inscriptions, p. 482-484.
Bibliography
- Bergmann 1977 M. Bergmann, Studien zum römischen Porträt des 3. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. (Antiquitas), Bonn. p. 39
- Braemer 1999 F. Braemer, « Le culte impérial en Narbonnaise et dans les Alpes au Haut-Empire : documents sculptés, » Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise, 32, pp. 49–55. p. 53, fig. 2
- Cazes et al. 1999 D. Cazes, E. Ugaglia, V. Geneviève, L. Mouysset, J.-C. Arramond, Q. Cazes, Le Musée Saint-Raymond : musée des Antiques de Toulouse, Toulouse-Paris. p. 141
- Espérandieu 1908 É. Espérandieu, Recueil général des bas-reliefs de la Gaule romaine, 2. Aquitaine, Paris. p. 90-91, no 1001
- Felletti Maj 1958 B.M. Felletti Maj, Iconografia romana imperiale da Severo Alessandro a M. Aurelio Carino (222-285 d. C.) (Quaderni e guide di archeologia), Rome. p. 179, no 220
- Joulin 1901 L. Joulin, Les établissements gallo-romains de la plaine de Martres-Tolosane, Paris. no 298 E
- Poulsen 1951 F. Poulsen, Catalogue of Ancient Sculpture in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. p. 523, no 754
- Rachou 1912 H. Rachou, Catalogue des collections de sculpture et d’épigraphie du musée de Toulouse, Toulouse. no 166
- Rosso 2006 E. Rosso, L’image de l’empereur en Gaule romaine : portraits et inscriptions (Archéologie et histoire de l’art), Paris. p. 482-484, no 234
- Veyne 2005 P. Veyne, L’Empire gréco-romain (Des travaux), Paris. fig. 38
- Wegner, Unger 1979 M. Wegner, R. Unger, « Verzeichnis der Kaiserbildnisse von Antoninus Pius bis Commodus, » Boreas. Münstersche Beiträge zur Archäologie, 2, pp. 87–181. p. 56
- Bulletin municipal Toulouse 1936 Bulletin municipal Toulouse, Bulletin municipal, Toulouse. p. 837
To cite this notice
Capus P., "Portrait of Tranquillina (?)", in The sculptures of the roman villa of Chiragan, Toulouse, 2019, online <https://villachiragan.saintraymond.toulouse.fr/en/ark:/87276/a_ra_166>.