XVI.
SAINT HELENA (255 ? - 327 A.D.) Bronze, late 3rd or early 4th century A.D. H: 35 cm
Contrary to the hair, the face is entirely preserved, without damage. The surface of the bronze is smooth, clean and dark-colored, almost black. The neck is largely preserved ; the rounded and regular shape of its contours was certainly fashioned to be inserted into a bust or a statue. From a technical point of view, this is a very high quality piece. The edges of the bronze are thick and regular ; the casting marks have been repaired by rectangular bronze plaques delicately applied on the surface ; the incisions for the anatomical details are deep, thick and executed with precise and assured strokes. On the hair, there are many small squared holes whose arrangement is somewhat circular : using small tenons or nails, this system would probably have allowed attachment of a crown, a diadem or a veil, that partially covered the head of the woman. Other squared holes are pierced behind the neck and by the edge of the hair, which was probably cast apart from the rest of the head and the neck ; the iris and the pupil were inlaid. The face is characterized by elongated and linear contours, with a strong jaw and a prominent and rounded chin. The figure represented is a woman, certainly old, as indicated by the numerous wrinkles near the eyes and the nose, the sunken cheeks and the absence of the curves distinctive of youthful portraits ; her head and her gaze are directed resolutely forward. Stylistically, the notable elements of this work are the clarity and the cleanness of the con-
tours, as well as the realism of the features : the shapes are modeled but they do not have any volume, the incisions, which are used only for the hair and the eyebrows, present a lack of finesse but they are precise. With this head, one is now far from the classical artistic currents and from the delicately expressive and idealized shapes of many portraits of the first centuries of the Empire. The face, very elongated and narrow, is slightly asymmetrical ; the surface is smooth, but presents multiples depressions and undulations on the forehead, in the area of the eyes and on the cheeks. The long and linear nose presents a bump along the ridge and its nostrils are narrow; the mouth is small, with curvy lips and deep-set corners; a deep depression separates the lower lip from the chin. The eyes are large and their contours are marked by ridges ; the upper eyelid forms an arch while the lower one is nearly horizontal ; the superciliar arch is indicated by a slight ridge ; undulating, fishbone- shaped incisions indicate the eyebrows. The hair is particularly elaborate : it covers the head like a rounded basket, composed of one or several plaits winding in a coil on the skull and becoming thinner at the center. The various locks are indicated by undulating lines, incised on both sides of the curls. On the forehead, the hair frames the face and, on the sides, they completely hide the ears. Chronologically, the best parallels for this figure are probably the works of the late 3rd and especially of the early 4th century A.D. Several portraits of this period (mostly
male portraits) present such clean contours and such elongated and angular shapes, with the rare details deeply incised: the colossal heads of Constantine at the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome and in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the portrait of Dogmatius of the Lateran, a beautiful young female head from Copenhagen. This portrait originates from Pannonia, a region located in central Europe, on the northern shore of the Danube. Many important figures of the 3rd century, mostly from the army, came from the Balkan and Danubian provinces : for example, among the soldier-emperors, Trajan Decius, Tacitus and Probus originally came from these regions. Similarly, two of the most influential figures of the Late Empire, Diocletian and Constantine, were born there, the first one probably in Split, Dalmatia and the other one in Naissos, in the ancient Moesia Superior, near the Danube. The art of the portrait perfectly reflects this situation, since there are numerous images of emperors or ordinary citizens found all over the Balkans, often of good quality. Many portraits were executed in noble materials, such as Egyptian Porphyry (Tetrarchy heads in Naissos and in Belgrade) or bronze (portraits of Gordian in Sofia, of Constantine and of a woman in Belgrade). Despite the age of the subject, her face still expresses great strength of character and much self-confidence : as evidenced also by the artistic quality of the statue, this figure certainly belonged to the high nobility (or even to the Imperial family) of the Tetrarchy years or of Con-