Comment on Thorvaldsen's Small Silver Head - A Ruined Tondo Portrait
[The author’s note in the text] See Schneider (op.cit., note 10) p. 156ff. See also Scriptores Historia Augusta, which notes that even in late Antiquity many homes still had portraits of Marcus Aurelius in their shrines. Among the recent finds from Ephesos a group of miniature portraits executed in ivory from about 220 A.D. (J. Inan – E. Alföldi-Rosenbaum, Römische und fruhbyzantinische Porträtplastik aus der Türkei, Mainz 1979, No. 157-160) has been interpreted as effigies of the Imperial family set up in a private house, see Jane Fejfer, Ikonografisk-historisk undersøgelse over portrætopstillinger af det severiske dynastis kvinder (unpublished prize paper) Århus Chap. III note 90. On household gods and their cult, see K. Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte, Munich 1960, p.89ff.
Last updated 26.11.2015