3-037-316 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Funerary Relief with Busts of Popillius and Calpurnia, A.D. 1-20. Additional Info: Shown are the frontal busts of a man and a woman, Popillius and his wife, Calpurnia. They are identified as freed slaves in the Latin inscription on the windowlike frame surrounding their portraits. Popillius wears a tunic with a toga over it; his right hand rests on a draped fold of fabric. His hair is combed forward in short curls to form a square frame for his forehead; the locks fork above his nose. Calpurnia wears a tunic with a mantle over her shoulders, and her hair is fashioned in a nodus above her forehead. A lock of hair hangs down behind each ear and onto her tunic in the front. This type of funerary monument was commissioned by the families of former slaves as a sign of their elevated social status.