Description
Portrait of Eutychia, a memorial to a Greek Young Woman from Asia Minor (today’s Turkey), Early Roman Period, 1st c. BC to 1st century AD.
Sculpted from a local limestone, it was probably commissioned as part of a larger family set of portraits. This fact can be surmised because the Greek inscription at its base clearly gives her name as Eutychia and the fact that she was a “daughter” without providing her father’s name as would normally be expected to be given («Ευτυχια Θυγατηρ»). This make sense if we consider that her mother’s and her father’s names had already been given on adjacent protomes, as was usual on family group memorials.
Eutychia seems to have come from a family of some means as attested by the fact that a family common final place of repose was established. She probably passed at a young age, perhaps 15 or 16 years old, in any case before she was married. She is depicted wearing a simple gold choker-necklace with an inverted half crescent moon pendant. She has her chiton pulled over her head, possibly as an indication that this is a memorial portrait or an indication modesty or religious piety.
At a first glance, this portrait may be judged as the creation of a local, provincial sculptor’s workshop. However, because it lacks all the trappings found on more ostentatious contemporary portraits that may project societal pretenses that may obscure the “real” person, we can deduce much information about the place where she was born, her status in her local society and the prevailing culture at the time she was alive. Additionally, Eutychia is depicted as a convincingly “real” person. Hers is an animated portrait of a young woman with a glimmer in her eyes animating a lively spirit and many life aspirations and who sadly, met her demise in an untimely manner.
