January 2023

Marble female portrait bust from Thessaloniki (ΜΘ 1060)

Marble female portrait bust from Thessaloniki (ΜΘ 1060). ©Ministry of Culture-AMTh

This bust, about 60 cm high, is quite well preserved. Part of the nose is broken. The bust’s base was made of a separate piece of marble, which has been lost.

Α portrait bust of an excellent condition that depicts an elderly woman as her double chin shows. The woman's face, with a slight turn to the left, is plump without wrinkles with a broad lower jaw. He has a low forehead, large eyes, a hooked nose and thin lips. Pupils are drilled and irises are incised. Her hair is presented in an elaborate hairstyle that creates a dense mass piled high around her face and forming a thick bun, in a type of a hairstyle first appeared in the Severan period and continued to be highly popular throughout Late Antiquity. The bust is wearing a chiton and himation draped with folds across her chest.

This is one of the best examples of figurative art of the transition period from the Roman to the Byzantine Times, dated to 410 AD. This female portrait, probably from Thessaloniki, was paired with the male bust (ΜΘ 1061) possibly carved in the same workshop characterized of outstanding quality of workmanship. The busts are displayed together.

The object is displayed in the exhibition, In Macedonia from the 7th century BC until the late antiquity, Hall 3.