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Big frontal brooches. Jewelry on sculptures and gold glass

Gold glass portrait of Saint Agnes, Musei Vaticani; 4th century >> source

Portraits, Pontiffs and the Christianization of Fourth-Century Rome, by Lucy Grig >> source


4th century statue of Coelia Concordia, a pastiche. The portrait head of vestal was lost, is replaced by head of Pothos. Torso reused from the second century statue. Information from “Portraits of the Vestal Virgins, Priestesses of Ancient Rome” by Molly Lindner >> source
Picture of a statue >> http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/database/simple-results.php?All_Records_page=64…

La fortuna delle Vestali tra il 1400 e il 1600, Maria Mangiafesta >> publication

The Value of the Vestal Statues as Originals, Esther Boise van Deman https://www.jstor.org/stable/496846

A statue of a Vestal Virgin, Coelia Concordia set up by the wife of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus in 385 AD.  

Julia Lenaghan, Late-Antique Portrait Statuary in Rome. An Overview
In: PRIVATPORTRÄT Die Darstellung realer Personen in der spätantiken und byzantinischen Kunst; ed. Vasiliki Tsamakda und Norbert Zimmermann
[academia.edu]


The chief priestess of the Vestal Virgins (detail), the Vesta Maxima: a Roman marble portrait from the House of the Vestal Virgins in the Roman Forum (Casa delle Vestali). From the Museo Nazionale, Rome (Terme Museum). Dated by the museum to the end of the Hadrianic period – beginning of the Antonine period (thus mid 2nd century CE). RBU2015.5308
source

To compare:
Medallion, gold ornament from Syria, 3rd-4th century, diameter 4.2 cm; in Louvre https://colorsandstones.eu/produkt/medallion-from-syria-275-325-ce/
Gold ornament with glass, 101-400 CE, RGM Koln https://colorsandstones.eu/produkt/medallion-sarmatian/

Medallion with a portrait of the vestal Bellicia Modesta, 3rd century.
History of Rome and of the Roman people, from its origin to the Invasion of the Barbarians; : Duruy, Victor, 1811-1894
Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/historyofromeofr42duru


From the technically point of view the brooches seem to have replaced the knot


Gold glass portraits >> https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gold_glass


Roman funerary relief from Hammamet, Tunisia
Photo by Jona Lendering https://twitter.com/JonaLendering

Sources:

  1. names OF VESTAL VIRGINS
  2. La fortuna delle Vestali tra il 1400 e il 1600 Maria Mangiafesta
  3. Portraits of the Vestal Virgins, Priestesses of Ancient Rome by Molly Lindner
  4. The Value of the Vestal Statues as Originals, Esther Boise van Deman
    American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Jul. – Sep., 1908), pp. 324-342 https://www.jstor.org/stable/496846
  5. Portraits, Pontiffs and the Christianization of Fourth-Century Rome by Lucy Grig
  6. History of Rome and of the Roman people, from its origin to the Invasion of the Barbarians; Duruy, Victor, 1811-1894
    Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/historyofromeofr42duru
  7. Julia Lenaghan, Late-Antique Portrait Statuary in Rome. An Overview
    In: PRIVATPORTRÄT Die Darstellung realer Personen in der spätantiken und byzantinischen Kunst; ed. Vasiliki Tsamakda und Norbert Zimmermann [academia.edu]