Marble Portrait of the Empress Agrippina Minor

Culture: Roman

Period: 1st century A.D.

Material: Marble

Dimensions: 28 cm high

Price: Sold

Ref: 3380

Provenance: Private collection Dr. Anton Pestalozzi (1915-2007), acquired 1977 from La Reine Margot in Paris. Exhibited in the Bernese History Museum, „Gesichter: Griechische und römische Bildnisse aus Schweizer Besitz“, from 6 November 1982 to 6 February 1983.

Condition: The separately worked out neck braid missing. The nose is restored, otherwise very well preserved.

Description: Life-size portrait of the empress Agrippina Minor, Claudius' wife and Nero's mother. The face with straight, fine features, a thin long nose, and eyes which look gently and gracefully out of thick lids. The mouth well-formed and closed. Her hair is parted in the middle, on the head wavy and running down in thick small curls framing the face. Agrippina Minor, who was also great-granddaughter of Augustus, took over this striking hairstyle from her mother Agrippina Maior. She thereby also alludes to her noble decent from the gens Iulia. The head is slightly bent to the left, therefore the Venus rings build up on the left side of the thin neck. The slightly coarse marble as well as the compact, slightly motionless form indicate the production in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The bigger the distance to the capital Rome the more Agrippina Minor appears as the second Agrippina Maior. The large popularity of the parents Germanicus and Agrippina Maior lies behind this effect. The head is multiple-times published: H. Jucker and D. Willers, „Gesichter: Griechische und römische Bildnesse aus Schweizer Besitz“, Bern 1982, pages 96-97, number 38. Ines Jucker, „Skulpturen der Antiken-Sammlung Ennetwies“, Mainz am Rhein 1995, volume I, pages 37-38, number 20. In this publication Ines Jucker assumes that this is not Agrippina Minor, but a private portrait closely relating to the empress. Arachne database number 1082668.