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Marble
Sculpted in large-grained crystalline
off-white marble with a bluish grey vein running through the right side
of the veil ending towards the lower right eyebrow.
Condition: broken at the neck, the
present surface weathered and of uneven colours varying through different
shades of grey. A large ochre-stained area on the right side of the veil.
Missing: the lower part of the veil and a diagonal slice up to the left
ear, also a small part of the left ear-ring. The lower half of the nose
broken diagonally from the right nostril leftwards. A nick to the right
eyelid and abrasion to left eyelid. A large chip to the turned up fold
of the veil and a couple over the forehead. Much weathering to the left
side of the face and to the veil on top and to the left; on the right side
of the veil the marble eroded.
The representation and date of this
head pose an enigma. Various scholars have dated her differently. J. Meischner
[1] simply calls her a veiled female head and
would place her in the post-Theodosian period, in the third quarter of
the 5th century. J.D. Breckenridge [2] calls her
a magnificent example of metropolitan portraiture from the post-Justinianic
period and dates her in the mid to late 6th century mentioning that the
closest analogy [3] was the Head of the Virgin
in the 6th century icon belonging to St. Catherine's monastery on Mount
Sinai. D. Stutzinger [4] calls her portrait of
a lady of high rank and dates her in the mid 6th century. S. Trümpler
[5] (under H. Jucker's editorship) calls her a
young woman of the late-Theodosian epoch and dates her around the middle
of the 5th century A.D.
The author is not yet prepared to
abandon his original impression, namely that she is a life-size representation
of the Virgin Mary, the only one so far known having survived from before
the iconoclastic period which started around A.D. 726. He sees in her face
a dichotomy between the virginal purity and youthfulness of the lower third
of her face, mouth and chin, with the melancholic sad expression of her
eyes with the furrows at the bridge of her nose, expressing pathos and
suffering in keeping with the characteristics that would befit the Theotokos.
The analogy with the Virgin and Child
in St. Catherine's monastery [6] is telling for
the frontal position and other details. It is to be noted that the veil
on the right side of her head must have flown behind her shoulder, the
same as it would appear on the left side of the face, where it might have
come forward in front of her left shoulder, possibly indicating that she
held Jesus in her right arm, either seated or standing. If so, this might
express a contrast with her air of pathos, possibly little visible in the
dimly lit church with daylight filtering through alabaster windows.
In the catacombs of the Coemeterium
Maius in Rome there is a painting described as the Virgin and Child with
a Chrismon [7], and she wears jewellery. However,
K.S. Weitzmann explained to the author that after the Council of Nicaea
A.D. 325 it would have been impossible that the Virgin wore even hair-rings
in the East. The author wonders whether such rules would have been adhered
to so strictly so far from the capital, for if she comes from Pamphylia
where there are many monasteries, her surviving the iconoclastic period
could be explained by the Sassanian-Byzantine wars of the 5th/6th centuries
A.D. when she might have been buried.
Of course, it may be safer
to express the possibility that she is simply a lady of high position portrayed
with a spiritual aura.
Exhibited and Published:
Mentioned:
1
In the text of a lecture that she had given on the subject of portraiture
in the post-Theodosian period up to A.D. 500 and of which she kindly sent
the author her manuscript (5 March 1991).
2Age
of Spirituality, no. 273.
3
Adopting the author's suggestion of 27 September 1976 and stating "which
has similar fullness of modeling, pursed full mouth, and even the same
slight double chin."
4Spätantike
und frühes Christentum, no. 77.
5Gesichter,
no. 96.
6 Mt.
Sinai, Monastery of St. Catherine: Boyd, S.A.: Age of Spirituality,
no. 478, pp. 533-534.
7
Mancinelli, F.: Catacombs and Basilicas. The Early Christians in Rome
(Florence, 1981), p. 44 ill. 86.
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