A Marble Portrait Bust of Empress Furia Sabina Tranquillina, Roman Imperial, reign of Gordian III, A.D 241-244

turned to her right, her long centrally parted hair arranged in a melon coiffure, braided into multiple strands, and coiled into a broad plait fastened on the back of the head, her oval face with parted lips and heavy-lidded eyes with engraved irises and drilled crescentic pupils.

French family collection, Lyon, since the early 20th Century

Socle is later European (perhaps to imitate the sockle of lot 57), bust appears ancient but reworked, the ancient portrait head may or may not belong to the bust, part of nose restored more than once in marble and a little plaster, proper right eyebrow restored in plaster, area of repair on the drapery in back, proper right ear abraded, minor chips, surface worn.
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Gordian III was made emperor at the age of fifteen and three years later married Tranquillina, the daughter of his commander of the praetorian guard Furius Sabinus Aquila Timesitheus. Tranquillina survived the assassination of her husband, who was executed by his soldiers at age 19 and replaced by Philip the Arab in 244.

For a list of the twelve other portraits heads of Tranquillina known as of 1983 see K. Fittschen and P. Zanker, Katalog der römischen porträts in den capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom, vol. III, Mainz am Rhein, 1983, p. 33. The best known example is in the British Museum (see D.E.E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, New Haven, 1992, fig. 349).