My Story - Ancient Women Portraits and Their Afterlife

About the Exhibition

This exhibition offers an intriguing exploration of ancient female portraits and their 'afterlife.' A special exhibition themed on female portraiture from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna's collection of ancient Roman sculpture, it explores the lives of ancient figures and their artistic reinterpretation. The exhibition is centered on two female portraits selected from a collection of 250 Roman marble portraits, showing the historical context of ancient sculpture as newly illuminated by current research. In particular, it focuses on using women's hairstyles to explore the precise dating of a portrait and the identity of its subject. The exhibition shows how ancient sculpture has been reinterpreted and revised across different eras, exploring the transformation of ancient art and its meaning. Through the two female portraits — especially the marble head of 'Julia Titi' — visitors can experience the social status of ancient women and their artistic afterlife.