Modern Portrait of Salonina Matidia, Called Plotina

Here she lies, frugal chaste modest

This is how Hadrian describes his mother-in-law Salonina Matidia in her laudatio funebris in 119 AD. Matidia embodies the main characteristics required from a Roman matron, chastity and modesty. Virtuous example of Augusta of the Roman Empire, Matidia was granddaughter of Trajan and mother of Sabina, who married Hadrian, the future emperor. She was celebrated under the principality of Trajan and in particular under Hadrian who deified her at the moment of her death. The portrait, larger than life-size, faithfully reproduces Matidia's features and the particular hairstyle that crowns her forehead with a high frontal hairpiece in the form of a diadem, at the back the hair is gathered into a long braid rolled into a chignon. This portrait is a modern replica of an original found on the Esquiline and preserved in the Capitoline Museums, initially identified by Visconti as Plotina.


Inventory: MT 542

Material: White marble

Technique: Work sculpted through the use of: chisels (also square-tipped and toothed) rasps

Dating: Modern age

Origin: Torlonia purchase