Budapest Régiségei 41. (2007)
TANULMÁNYOK - FACSÁDY Annamária: A nők ábrázolásának ikonográfiája az aquincumi sírköveken
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF FEMALE DEPICTIONS Women were usually depicted along with their children by their husbands' sides or between their families on the grave steles. As usual small portraits of people - a mother with her child, a married couple - were represented on grave steles dating to the 1 st - 2 nd century. From the Severian period, the number of the persons shown of the relief grew. The half-length portrait, the half or three-quarter figure depiction and the sitting figure together with women shown in native clothing became widespread. The strictly frontal view, the impersonal figure looking straight ahead become charasteristic. It is rare that personal touches can be spotted. The clothing worn by the women are basically of two different types: native or Roman dress. Grave steles with depictions of women dressed in native clothing usually date to the AD 2 nd century in the absence of other characteristics that are of dating value. How elaborate the details of the carving were depended on the skill and qualifications of the stone mason. The clothes were complemented by depictions of typical jewelry allowing these representations to be separated into three groups: 1. Women wearing a pair of short and massive nor-Pannonian type winged brooches with thick twisted torques. They are shown wearing bracelets on their wrists. As the torques appear to fall below the neck-line of the dress, they do not seem to have had any practical function. 2. Depictions where the brooches were longer and slimer. The women do not wear torques although medals are shown. 3. Large angled and rectilinear brooches. Septimia Procella's grave stele demonstrates that women continued to wear native clothing into the AD 3rd century or at any rate it continued to be worn by the older generation as well. Such native clothing was enhanced by use of an almost pleated shawl placed over the left shoulder and flung over on the right shoulder. This kind of clothing was characteristic in the Antoninus period. The other women depicted on the grave stele wore Roman tunics and pallas. The representation of the textile and pleating depended on technical equipment used by the stone-cutter workshop and the talent of the craftsman as well as on the period and stylistic criteria. The hair style of the women who are shown wearing Roman clothes helps with the dating. Frontal presentation in the reliefs permitted the hands to be strongly emphasized and the hands are often shown holding objects as well. The most common attributes shown with young ladies and girls were apples or bunch of grapes which can be seen only with women wearing local clothes. The representation of the reel-distaff on the steles of Pannónia and Aquincum can be seen only in the hands women shown wearing native clothing with brooches or shawls. It is never shown together with women wearing Roman clothes. The following periods can be identified based on the iconography of the female figures shown on Aquincum grave steles: Women wearing native clothing were in the majority at the end of the AD 1 century and 2 century. They were rarely represented in Roman clothing and followed the empress in their hair fashion. In the Antoninus period, the shawl version of the clothes was most common. Asia Minor and Balkan influences can be observed in the composition and symbolic system found in the reliefs, for example: a "klinés" representation and the reel-distaff held in the hand. Important changes take place in the Severian period. The parted smooth hair style covering the ears spread. The Roman clothes and the depictions of jewelry were not previously known together with native clothing before it became common for young ladies shown dressed in native clothing. The number of people shown on the stone steles on grave monuments of the families increases and the placement of the hands reflects this connection. Hair fashions became more varied in the AD 3 century. However, the composition is unsophisticated, with only the apple still being shown in the hand. Only a few stele stones remain from age of the tetrarchia, the quality of the working out and return to early hair fashions made their dates difficult.
