Marcia Furnilla
Title
Marcia Furnilla
Date
Roman Imperial (Flavian) c. 80-100 CE
Artist or Workshop
unknown
Materials
marble
Height of the work
191cm tall
Provenience
Most likely find spot was the "Flavians' Villa" at Frattochie, near Lake Albano, Italy, though some scholars have proposed the statue was originally situated in a tomb along the Via Appia.
Current Location
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sitter Biography
The portrait is probably of Marcia Furnilla (b. 43CE - d.unk), wife of the future emperor Titus (reigned 79-81CE). Married in 65CE, divorced several years later. This attribution is not universally accepted by scholars.
Description and Significance
Description:
The head of middle-aged matron appears on a nude, youthful body in the so-called "modest [pudica] Venus" pose. The weight is placed on the left leg (which is braced with a carved support), the right leg relaxed in a contraposto arrangement. Her plain, almost masculine face betrays signs of age in the folds under the eyes and in the naso-labial lines. Her nose is long and narrow; her mouth is wide with moderately thin lips. The head is angled slightly forward, giving her a wary expression.
The coiffure is extremely elaborate in the Flavian style, with a dominating armature of hair outlining the face, and a tight bun behind. Deep drilling renders the hair curls.
The nose is chipped; two fingers on right hand and the entire left forearm is missing. On the plinth, to the figure's right, are two small feet, presumably the remains of the child Amor (Cupid), companion of Venus in traditional representations.
Significance:
This guise portrait harkens back to well-known representations of Venus/Aphrodite. In particular, it recalls the "Capitoline Venus," itself a copy Praxiteles's 4th century BCE Aprhodite of Knidos, depicting the goddess stepping out of the bath. The missing left hand would have covered her pudenda, while the right arm crosses her left breast in an attitude of pudicitia (a gesture of modesty in which the hands and arms cover the private parts). The nude female portrait is a Roman invention; in Greek art, female portraits are always clothed.
This peculiar age-youth hybridization had been featured in male imperial portraits before. The fact that it here extends to an elite woman is significant. The effect of the middle-aged face coupled to a youthful body is unsettling, even grotesque, to modern sensibilities. But for ancient elite Romans such juxtapositions were considered perfectly normal. In this case, a respectable Roman matron, possibly the wife of an emperor, is presented in the divine guise of Venus, one of the state gods of Rome, as well as representative of fecundity. The somewhat shocking combination of the lush nude body on a respectable Roman matron must be read as an allusion to her fecundity, and primary role as bearer of male children.
The head of middle-aged matron appears on a nude, youthful body in the so-called "modest [pudica] Venus" pose. The weight is placed on the left leg (which is braced with a carved support), the right leg relaxed in a contraposto arrangement. Her plain, almost masculine face betrays signs of age in the folds under the eyes and in the naso-labial lines. Her nose is long and narrow; her mouth is wide with moderately thin lips. The head is angled slightly forward, giving her a wary expression.
The coiffure is extremely elaborate in the Flavian style, with a dominating armature of hair outlining the face, and a tight bun behind. Deep drilling renders the hair curls.
The nose is chipped; two fingers on right hand and the entire left forearm is missing. On the plinth, to the figure's right, are two small feet, presumably the remains of the child Amor (Cupid), companion of Venus in traditional representations.
Significance:
This guise portrait harkens back to well-known representations of Venus/Aphrodite. In particular, it recalls the "Capitoline Venus," itself a copy Praxiteles's 4th century BCE Aprhodite of Knidos, depicting the goddess stepping out of the bath. The missing left hand would have covered her pudenda, while the right arm crosses her left breast in an attitude of pudicitia (a gesture of modesty in which the hands and arms cover the private parts). The nude female portrait is a Roman invention; in Greek art, female portraits are always clothed.
This peculiar age-youth hybridization had been featured in male imperial portraits before. The fact that it here extends to an elite woman is significant. The effect of the middle-aged face coupled to a youthful body is unsettling, even grotesque, to modern sensibilities. But for ancient elite Romans such juxtapositions were considered perfectly normal. In this case, a respectable Roman matron, possibly the wife of an emperor, is presented in the divine guise of Venus, one of the state gods of Rome, as well as representative of fecundity. The somewhat shocking combination of the lush nude body on a respectable Roman matron must be read as an allusion to her fecundity, and primary role as bearer of male children.
References
Breckenridge, James. Likeness: A Conceptual History of Ancient
Portraiture, Northwestern University Press, 1968, pp. 201-
202
D'Ambra, Eva. "The Calculus of Venus: Nude Portraits of Roman
Matrons." Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt,
Greece, Rome, edited by Natalie Kampen and Bettina
Bergmann, Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 219-232.
Hallett, Christopher. The Roman Nude: Heroic Portrait Statuary
200 BC - 300 AD, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 199-
201.
Johansen, Flemming. Catalogue of Roman Portraits II, Ny
Carlsberg Glyptotek, 1995, p. 50.
Kleiner, Diana. Roman Sculpture, Yale University Press, 1992,
pp. 177-179.
Portraiture, Northwestern University Press, 1968, pp. 201-
202
D'Ambra, Eva. "The Calculus of Venus: Nude Portraits of Roman
Matrons." Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt,
Greece, Rome, edited by Natalie Kampen and Bettina
Bergmann, Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 219-232.
Hallett, Christopher. The Roman Nude: Heroic Portrait Statuary
200 BC - 300 AD, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 199-
201.
Johansen, Flemming. Catalogue of Roman Portraits II, Ny
Carlsberg Glyptotek, 1995, p. 50.
Kleiner, Diana. Roman Sculpture, Yale University Press, 1992,
pp. 177-179.
Contributor
Mark Weadon
Citation
unknown, “Marcia Furnilla,” Digital Portrait "Basket" - ARTH488A - "Ancient Mediterranean Portraiture", accessed May 20, 2024, https://classicalchopped2.artinterp.org/omeka/items/show/39.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.