Provenance
- 1939
Alfredo Barsanti (Rome, Italy), sold to J. Paul Getty, 1939.
1939 - 1970
J. Paul Getty, American, 1892 - 1976, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1970.
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Not on view due to temporary Getty closure
Bust of a Woman
Unknown
Roman
Roman Empire (Place Created)
about A.D. 130
Marble
70.AA.100
43 × 42.1 × 24 cm (16 15/16 × 16 9/16 × 9 7/16 in.)
Gift of J. Paul Getty
J. Paul Getty was especially entranced by this portrait, long believed to represent Sabina (A.D. 83-137), wife of the emperor Hadrian. Distinctive features such as the protruding ears make this identification doubtful. Her hair is fastened in a loose bun typically worn by Greek goddesses. This gives the anonymous sitter the appearance of Classical statuary, a conceit enhanced by the diadem.
Alfredo Barsanti (Rome, Italy), sold to J. Paul Getty, 1939.
J. Paul Getty, American, 1892 - 1976, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1970.
Getty, J. Paul. The History of the Oil Business of George F. and J. Paul Getty from 1903-1939 (1941), pp. 488-92.
Getty, J. Paul, and Ethel Le Vane. Collector's Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe (London: W. H. Allen, 1955), p. 84; pl. facing p. 273.
Stothart, Herbert. A Handbook of the Sculpture in the J. Paul Getty Museum. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1965), p. 21, no. I-39.
Getty, J. Paul. The Joys of Collecting (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1965), pp. 76, 84.
Carandini, A. Vibia Sabina. (Florence: 1969), pp. 185-86, no. 51; figs. 226-227.
Del Chiaro, Mario A. Roman Art in West Coast Collections (exh. cat). University Art Gallery, University of California at Santa Barbara, January 10-February 11, 1973 (Santa Barbara: 1973), p. 23, cat. no. 8; p. 62, ill.
Frel, Jirí, and Elizabeth Buckley. Greek and Roman Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum. exh. cat. California State University at Northridge, October 16-November 11, 1973 (1973), no. 30.
Vermeule, Cornelius, and Norman Neuerberg. Catalogue of the Ancient Art in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1973), p. 30, no. 64, ill.
Fredericksen, Burton B., ed. The J. Paul Getty Museum: Greek and Roman Antiquities, Western European Paintings, French Decorative Arts of the Eighteenth Century (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1975), p. 59.
Fredericksen, Burton B., Jiří Frel, and Gillian Wilson. Guidebook: The J. Paul Getty Museum. 4th ed. Sandra Morgan, ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978), p. 52.
Brinkerhoff, Dericksen. "Hypotheses on the History of the Crouching Aphrodite Type in Antiquity." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vols. 6/7 (1978-1979), pp. 83-96, p. 85; fig. 4.
Jucker, Hans, and Dietrich Willers, eds. Gesichter: Griechische und römische Bildnisse aus schweizer Besitz. Bernischen Historischen Museum, November 6, 1982-February 6, 1983. Exh. cat. (Bern: Archäologisches Seminar der Universität Bern, 1982), p. 129.
Chamay, Jacques, Jiřì Frel, and Jean-Louis Maier. Le monde des Césars: Portraits romains (Geneva: Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève 1982), p. 129; pls. 24, 24a-b.
Chamay, Jacques and Jean-Louis Maier. "Le Monde des Cesars," Archeologia, vol. 174 (1983), pp. 14-17, p. 129, pls. 24, 24a, 24b.
Goette, Hans R. "Das Bildnis des Marcus Vilonius Varro in Kopenhagen: Zu den Basen von Portraitbüsten und zum Realismus flavisch-traianischer Bildnisse." Boreas 7 (1984), p. 96 [comparanda for no. D.d.].
Wegner, M., and R. Unger. "Verzeichnis der Bildnisse von Hadrian und Sabina," Boreas 7 (1984), pp. 105-156, p. 149.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 1st ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1986), p. 8, fig. 9.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 2nd ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988), p. 8, fig. 9.
Index der antiken Kunst und Architektur: Denkmäler des griechisch-römischen Altertums in der Photosammlung des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Rom...Begleitband: Register und Kommentar. (New York : K.G. Saur, 1988), fiche 2632, D5.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 3rd ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1991), p. 5, fig. 5.
Kleiner, Diana E. E., and Susan B. Matheson. I Claudia. Women in Ancient Rome (ex. cat.). Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT, Sept. 6-Dec. 1, 1996; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio TX, Jan. 3-March 9, 1997; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC, April 6-June 15, 1997. New Haven: 1996, pp. 69-70, no.23.
Quenemoen, Caroline Kerrigan. Claudia in the Classroom. A Secondary Teachers' Curriculum Guide to I Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome, an Exhibition Organized by the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven: 1997, pp. 18-19; fig. 19.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Antiquities Collection (Los Angeles: 2002), pp. xi-xii, fig. 3.
Grossman, Janet Burnett. Looking at Greek and Roman Sculpture in Stone (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), pp. 53, ill.
Vermeule, Cornelius. " Faces of Empire; Julius Caesar to Justinian." The Celator 19, no.12 (December 2005), pp. 24,26, fig. 7 (incorrectly cited as 70.44.100).
Turcan, Robert. Hadrien: Souverain de la romanité (Dijon: Faton, 2008), p. 97, fig. 54.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Antiquities Collection. Rev. ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010), pp. xii, fig. 3, 162.