The late roman female head from Konjic and the phenomenon of the physiognomic characteristics as the expression of specific time

Abstract

For more then hundred years the National Museum in Sarajevo keeps one very interesting female head (inv. no. 125) discovered in Konjic. The head manifests a mixture of individual features with iconic and almost transcendental style determinants. The main characteristics of physiognomy are: small nose and long part of the face between nose and upper lip, and of iconization: large and embossed eyes with stiffed gaze directed slightly upward. A woman has very characteristic hair style. There is a parting at the middle of the top of the head. The hair is thrown back as far as the back of head and then it is thrown up, almost up to the forehead. For this type of hair style Gorman terminology uses the word Seheitelzoffrisur, and it can be dated in the second half of the 3rd century and in the early 4th century. From the stylistic point of view this portrait shows two conflicting aspirations - one, for realistic moulding, and the other, for transcendental schematism. According to the style and the hair-dress this head shows the greatest similarities with the presentations on coins of die empress Galeria Valeria. However, this is not die portrait of the empress but of a private person. The similarity is a result of the phenomenon of temporal conditioning of the physiognomic type of a portrait that has its correlation widi die ruler's image. Thai's where the similarities came from. Therefore the portrait represents an unknown, richer local woman. The head was probably part of a sepulchral statue executed in the South, in Narona, and then transferred to Konjic. This portrait also has one wider significance, because in the whole Roman world there are only about 20 better preserved female portraits that can be used for scientific evaluation, and the head form Konjic is certainly one of them.