Staia Quinta

This female head is mounted on a herm, not shown in this cast, of a very different blue marble. The herm is inscribed “STAIA • L • L • QUINTA”, meaning Staia Quinta, freed slave. The head and the herm were excavated, together but not attached, along with a couple of other female heads at the same findspot. So it is not entirely certain head and inscription belong together.

The head has elaborate hair with a chignon at the back, parted in the middle with luxurious curls at the sides; a style seen in portraits of the elder Agrippina, wife of Germanicus and grandmother of Nero

Number

527

Material

Marble

Location of Original

Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 1435

Size

0.32m

References

Poulsen: Katalog over Antike Skulpturen Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 435, pl. LII
Hekler: Greek and Roman Portraits, 212a
Johansen, F: Catalogue of Roman Portraits in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (1994), vol.1, 196, no.86

Date

c.70 CE

Inscription

STAIA • L • L • QUINTA [not on cast]

Provenance

Found in the Temple of Diana at Lake Nemi in 1887. Later in the possession of Count Orsini

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