Part 4 L’antiquité tardive

Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)

0%
Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)
Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)
Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)
Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)
Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)
Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)
Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)
Biographic data
Daughter of Emperor Galerius (Caesar then Augustus), wife of Emperor Maxentius
Around 280 – after 312
Date de création
End of the 3rd century
Material
Saint-Béat marble (Haute-Garonne)
Dimensions
H. 32,5 x l. 26,5 x P. 24,5 (cm)
Inventory number
Ra 127

This portrait could well be that of the daughter of Galerius (who was Caesar to Diocletian), married to Maxentius in 293. There are no other known examples of this type of hairstyle in ancient portraiture (but curiously, old photographs of Croatian folk traditions include quite similar styles). Although the fashion for « melon-coiffure » hairstyles dates back to the 2nd century (with Empress Faustina the Younger), never before did it reach such a degree of complexity as here. Roman hairdressers and wigmakers, as we know, surpassed themselves in their art.

This work, by its workmanship and proportions, alludes to the portraits that surround it. This series forms an exceptional family ensemble in the form of monumental, full-length sculptures of which, unfortunately, only the heads remain.

According to J.-C. Balty, Les portraits romains, La Tétrarchie, 1.5 (Sculptures antiques de Chiragan (Martres-Tolosane), Toulouse, 2008, p. 111-122.

Bibliography

  • Ensoli, La Rocca 2000 S. Ensoli, E. La Rocca (eds.), Aurea Roma : dalla città pagana alla città cristiana. Mostra, Palazzo delle esposizioni, Roma, 22 dicembre 2000-20 aprile 2001, Rome
    .     p. 459, no 57
  • Balmelle 2001 C. Balmelle, Les demeures aristocratiques d’Aquitaine : société et culture de l’Antiquité tardive dans le Sud-Ouest de la Gaule (Mémoires 5 – Aquitania, suppl. 10), Bordeaux-Paris
    .     p. 230-231, fig. 125 d
  • Balty, Cazes 2008 J.-C. Balty, D. Cazes, Les portraits romains, 1 : La Tétrarchie, 1.5 (Sculptures antiques de Chiragan (Martres-Tolosane), Toulouse
    .     p. 21-22, 112, 115-119, 121, fig. 100 et 4e de couv.
  • Bergmann 1999 M. Bergmann, Chiragan, Aphrodisias, Konstantinopel : zur mythologischen Skulptur der Spätantike (Palilia), Wiesbaden
    .     p. 34, 40-41
  • 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. 144
  • Espérandieu 1908 É. Espérandieu, Recueil général des bas-reliefs de la Gaule romaine, 2. Aquitaine, Paris
    .     p. 92-93, no 1004
  • Hannestad 1994 N. Hannestad, Tradition in Late Antique Sculpture : Conservation, Modernization, Production (Acta Jutlandica. Humanities Series), Aarhus
    .     p. 133
  • Joulin 1901 L. Joulin, Les établissements gallo-romains de la plaine de Martres-Tolosane, Paris
    .     p. 338-339, pl. XXIII et no 301 D
  • Massendari 2006 J. Massendari, La Haute-Garonne : hormis le Comminges et Toulouse 31/1 (Carte archéologique de la Gaule), Paris
    .     p. 248, fig. 115
  • Rachou 1912 H. Rachou, Catalogue des collections de sculpture et d’épigraphie du musée de Toulouse, Toulouse
    .     p. 61, no 127
  • Rosso 2006 E. Rosso, L’image de l’empereur en Gaule romaine : portraits et inscriptions (Archéologie et histoire de l’art), Paris
    .     p. 490-491, no 239
  • Musée Saint-Raymond 1995 Musée Saint-Raymond, Le regard de Rome : portraits romains des musées de Mérida, Toulouse et Tarragona. Exhibition, Mérida, Museo nacional de arte romano ; Toulouse, Musée Saint-Raymond ; Tarragone, Museu nacional arqueològic de Tarragona, 1995, Toulouse
    .     p. 238, no 174

To cite this notice

Capus P., "Portrait of Valeria Maximilla (?)", in The sculptures of the roman villa of Chiragan, Toulouse, 2019, online <https://villachiragan.saintraymond.toulouse.fr/en/ark:/87276/a_ra_127>.