Portrait Bust of the Empress Claudia Octavia (50–70 CE): Art, History and Details

Portrait Bust of the Empress Claudia Octavia (50–70 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This portrait bust depicts a young woman whose idealized features and elaborate hairstyle may identify her as the empress Claudia Octavia (r. AD 54-62), unfortunate first wife of the notorious emperor Nero. Over her tunic she wears a stola, a long garment hanging from both shoulders and distinguishing her as a married, upper-class woman. Although beloved by the Roman citizenry and described by the historian Tacitus as “aristocratic and virtuous,” Octavia was eventually divorced and banished by Nero, then ordered put to death.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait Bust of the Empress Claudia Octavia
• Date: 50–70 CE
• Culture: Italy, Roman
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 38.2 cm (15 1/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1925.943

A detail from the museum

The complex coiffure includes four elements: parted waves (top), tight curls (sides), hanging ringlets (shoulders, back), and a braided knot (back).

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Howard, Rossiter. "Two Roman Portraits." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 13, no. 1 (1926): 8-13.
• Howard, Rossiter. "Roman Portrait Head." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 7 (1928): 147-53.
• Bieber, Margarete. “Roman Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum.” Art in America 32 (April 1944): 65–83.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.