{
"data": {
"id": 141656,
"accession_number": "1965.246",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Woman, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 33.2 x 20 x 14 cm (13 1/16 x 7 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.246",
"current_location": "104 Late Antiquity",
"title": "Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Woman",
"creation_date": "280\u201390 CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 280,
"creation_date_latest": 290,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian"
],
"technique": "marble",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Early Christian",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 33.2 x 20 x 14 cm (13 1/16 x 7 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.332,
"height_inch": 13,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 0.2,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875,
"depth": 0.14,
"depth_inch": 5,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300917,
"title": "Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions",
"description": "Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1966-09-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 443397,
"title": "Early Christian and Byzantine Art in Honor of Professor Ernst Kitzinger",
"description": "Early Christian and Byzantine Art in Honor of Professor Ernst Kitzinger. Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (March 17-April 22, 1979).",
"opening_date": "1979-03-17T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 206178,
"title": "Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture",
"description": "Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (September 26, 2006-February 19, 2007).",
"opening_date": "2006-09-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 180667,
"title": "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).",
"opening_date": "2007-05-10T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Metropolitan Museum of Art (9/26/2006 - 2/19/2007): \"Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture\"",
"opening_date": "2006-09-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007), the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008) and Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (2/13/2009 - 6/7/2009): \"Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art\"",
"opening_date": "2007-05-10T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "according to William Wixom, an unconfirmed report tells us that the entire group (1965.237-1965.247) was found in a single, huge pithos or jar. (J. J. Klejman, New York).",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [
{
"id": 141652,
"description": "Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Man, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 33.4 x 21 x 11.5 cm (13 1/8 x 8 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.242",
"relationship": null
},
{
"id": 141653,
"description": "Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Woman, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 33.4 x 18.5 x 10.7 cm (13 1/8 x 7 5/16 x 4 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.243",
"relationship": null
},
{
"id": 141654,
"description": "Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Woman, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 31.5 x 19 x 10.8 cm (12 3/8 x 7 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.244",
"relationship": null
},
{
"id": 141655,
"description": "Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Man, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 35.2 x 21.5 x 12 cm (13 7/8 x 8 7/16 x 4 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.245",
"relationship": null
},
{
"id": 141657,
"description": "Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Man, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 33.5 x 20.1 x 10 cm (13 3/16 x 7 15/16 x 3 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.247",
"relationship": null
}
],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "These busts are thought to have been unearthed with the Good Shepherd and Jonah sculptures. The nearly identical facial characteristics of each sitter\u2014three males and three females\u2014suggest that the same man and woman was represented three times. Although the intended function of the busts remains unknown, they probably represent a husband and wife. The portraits have been dated stylistically, as well as by costume and hairstyle, to the AD 270s. One of the men wears a paludamentum, or fringed cloak. One of the women wears a decorative stole, an attribute of rank probably conferred on her by her husband. The most distinctive feature of the female portraits is the hairstyle, a variation of the scheitzelkopf, in which the hair, after being combed behind the ears down to the nape of the neck, is braided, pulled up over the top of the head and folded under at the front. Careful study of the evolution of women's coiffures supports a date of AD 270 to 280 for the portraits, about the same as the symbolic sculptures of Jonah and the Good Shepherd. The rarity of intentionally paired portrait busts in late antiquity, especially those in a series, raises questions as to their original function. The busts may have been commemorative and intended for distribution as diplomatic gifts. It is likely that they were commissioned by a single, important patron or family to enhance their social or political status.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60779564"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1965.246-portrait-bust-of-an"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "McColl, Donald Alexander. Early Christian Sculptures at Cleveland in Their Eastern Mediterranean Context. 1991.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Margaret English Frazer, and Kurt Weitzmann. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art Third to Seventh Century. New York: The Museum, 1977.",
"page_number": "407-411",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Kitzinger, Ernst. 1978. \"The Cleveland Marbles\". I Monumenti Cristiani Preconstantiniani. 653-675.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\u201cEarly Christian Sculptures at Cleveland.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 3 (March 1967): 67\u201388.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 67, 73-74; Reproduced: p. 68, 70, 72, figs. 5, 7, 18",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152146"
},
{
"citation": "Weitzmann, Kurt, and Margaret English Frazer. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art Third to Seventh Century ; Based on the Catalogue to the Exhibition \"Age of Spirituality\", Metropolitan Museum New York, 1977. [New York, NY]: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977.",
"page_number": "pp. 406-411",
"url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=efLuB7QPDm8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=cleveland&f=false"
},
{
"citation": "Lehman, Karen M. \" Sacred and Profane Hellenizing Marbles of the Late Third Century Roman Empire: Secular Portraits and Religious Narrative Sculptures in the Cleveland Museum of Art Reviewed in the Cultural Context.\" M.A. thesis, Kent State University, 2004.",
"page_number": "Mnetioned: p. iv; Reproduced: p. 89, fig. 6",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 38-39, no. 2",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Rumscheid, Frank, Sabine Schrenk and Kornelia Kressirer. Go\u0308ttliche Ungerechtigkeit?: Strafen und Glaubenspru\u0308fungen als Themen antiker und fru\u0308hchristlicher Kunst. Petersber : Dr. M. Imhof,2018.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 299; IV.2.3 Abb. 3: Portratbusten",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lafli, Erg\u00fcn. \"Roman portrait grave steles from Nicomedia and Bithynia (northwestern Turkey),\" Pontica, Muzeul de Istorie Na\u021bional\u0103 \u0219i Arheologie Constan\u021ba / The Annual Journal of National History and Archeology Museum \u2013 Constan\u021ba , vol.51 (2018), 434-449.",
"page_number": "Mentioned p. 436, Reproduced p. 446, fig. 11",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Bol, Peter, Carola Reinsberg, Renate Bol, D. Kreikenbom, Hans-Ulrich Cain, Heike Richter, and Britta O\u0308zen-Kleine. Plastik der ro\u0308mischen Kaiserzeit vom Regierungsantritt des Antoninus Pius bis zum Ende der Antike. Worms : Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbh, 2019.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 189, 191-193, 208, 216, 280; Reproduced: Textabb. 95, p. 190, Abb 179a-b (bd.2)",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Hornik, Heidi J. \"Interpreting Select Early Sculptures Using Art-Historical Methodology.\" In Early Christians and Their Art, edited by Mikeal C. Parsons and Robin M. Jensen, 1-24. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2023.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 4; Reproduced: p. 5, fig. 1.2",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.246",
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"date_created": "2006-02-02T19:05:26",
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],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Robert and Ann Gillespie Gallery",
"athena_id": 141656,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1965-09-11T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 280,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "280\u201390 CE",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Portrait Bust of a Woman of High Rank"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-07-04 11:16:28.409000"
}
}