The face is broad and rounded with fleshy cheeks and a low
forehead. The eyes are fairly large and well spaced, and delicately
delineated by the lids and the fine arch of the eyebrows. The
mouth is small with relatively thin lips and a slight downward
turn at the corners. The chin is damaged but the break suggests
it was prominent; in profile the line between chin and throat
is soft and fleshy. The nose is almost entirely broken off but
the arched curve at its root is still visible. The hair is arranged
in two rows of loose ringlet curls framing the face but leaving
the ears free; from behind the ears the hair has been braided/twisted
and the gathered into a chignon at the nape of the neck. Two
locks of hair have ‘escaped’ the braid and fall in
loose waves down over the shoulders. A band around the head
immediately behind the curls appears to have been left ‘roughed
out’, and the very crown of the head is only very summarily
worked to indicate the hair. The coiffure of ringlets framing
the face can be found in several portraits of the Julio-Claudian
period, but is particularly popular during the reigns of Caligula
and Claudius. Indeed, the chignon, shoulderlocks and the hair
pushed behind the ears are characteristic of the hairstyles
of Agrippina the Younger. Some parallels for the arrangement
of curls across the forehead can be found in the portraits of
this empress and in that of her mother, Agrippina the Older.
[1] Though, the hairstyle of the younger Agrippina tends to
accentuate the centre parting of the hair more emphatically
than is the case in the Butrint portrait, the two small antithetical
curls on the forehead of the latter is another feature often
found in the portraits of the empress. The ‘roughed out’
band is suggestive and may indicate that the figure was originally
conceived as wearing a headdress or even a diadem; the latter
of which would have been indicative of imperial status.