5 MINUTES WITH… A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT BUST OF THE EMPRESS LIVIA

Antiquities specialist Alexandra Olsman admires a 1st-century likeness of ‘one of the most controversial and intriguing characters in all of Roman history’ —

‘When I saw her, I stopped in my tracks’, says Alexandra Olsman, Antiquities specialist at Christie’s in New York, of this portrait bust of the Roman Empress Livia (58 BC-29 AD). ‘It’s pretty much exactly what you want from a marble portrait head.’

While portrait heads of Livia exist, they’re rare. The Antiquities team took it in with the idea that it might be a representation of Livia. When Olsman was finally able to view it, the specialist recalls, ‘there was something about it, especially the shape of the upper face, that made me think it could be Livia. But we needed to do more research. When it came to New York, that’s when we really hit the books and found some compelling parallels between this portrait bust and depictions of the Empress from the time of her grandson, the Emperor Claudius.’

‘Livia was the first Empress of Rome,’ explains Olsman, ‘but more than that, she was one of the most controversial and intriguing characters in all of Roman history.’ Her 51-year relationship with the future Emperor Augustus began with a tinge of scandal. Born Livia Drusilla in 58 BC, she met Augustus (then called Octavian) in 38 BC, while heavily pregnant with her second child by her first husband.

Augustus divorced his then-wife Scribonia, marrying Livia one year later. Livia was by Augustus’s side in 14 BC when he created the Principate — generally regarded as the most significant political shift in Roman history — and stayed with him until his death in 14 AD.

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