Antia Julia Pollia (?)

Worked from a single block of marble, the sitter can be identified with the help of an inscription found nearby: in the early second century A.D. Antia Iulia Polla, a citizen of Ephesus, was honoured with a statue depicting her in a virtuous pose, her cloak tightly wrapped around her body, that perfectly corresponds to the type known as “Small Herculaneum Woman”. With her (now lost) right hand she is about to pull the cloak enveloping her body – which she has gathered up with her left hand – over her left shoulder. Arranged like three tiaras over her forehead, her rigid hairstyle is modelled on the styles fashionable at the court of Trajan. Another version of this type is the Torso of a female Statue (right).