Evan and Anne discuss Marble Portrait Bust of a Woman with a Scroll, late 4th–early 5th century C.E., pentelic marble, 53 x 27.5 x 22.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection)
Additional resources:
This sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Smarthistory’s free Guide to Byzantine Art e-book
For the classroom
Questions for study or discussion
Thinking about context
- How might this sculpture have been originally displayed? What details support your position?
- What functions did sculptures like this serve in the Roman world?
Thinking about this object
- What materials and techniques were used to create this sculpture?
- In what condition does this sculpture survive?
- How can we reconstruct this sculpture’s original appearance?
- What role do materials and techniques play in the sculpture’s appearance and the viewer’s experience of it?
Thinking about iconography
- What does this sculpture tell us about the woman it depicts? How does it do this?
- What does this sculpture suggest about the experiences of women in its time and place?
- In what ways might this woman’s experiences have been the same or different from other women of her time?
Thinking about art history
- How does this sculpture fit within the broader history of art?
