Art And Architecture 353
The use of stone portraiture perhaps continued with Theoderic’s succes-
sors, his daughter Amalasuentha and Athalaric, her son, for whom she acted
as regent. A heavily damaged portrait head of a young man with a crown in
marble was found at Forli and probably represents him.9 Three marble portrait
heads of a woman with a round face wearing a crown and usually dated to the
6th century, two in Rome and the third now in the Louvre, apparently all came
from Rome (Figure 14.2). Although usually identified as the empress Ariadne
(d. 515), some scholars believe that they actually represent Amalasuentha, cit-
ing the fact that these are the only diademed female portraits of the period
to be found in Rome, which was then ruled by the Ostrogothic queen, rais-
ing questions as to why so many portraits of Ariadne should be found in
Rome and none in Constantinople.10 It is unclear whether or not any statues
of Theodahad were actually erected, but his list of proposed concessions to
Justinian included a commitment not to erect any statues of himself unless
they were placed next to statues of the emperor.11
Portraits of Athalaric and Amalasuentha are also found on the ivory dip-
tych of Orestes, consul in 530, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
(Figure 14.3).12 These are located in the upper part of each leaf, in the place
where the imperial couple is portrayed on other diptychs. This particular dip-
tych seems to be one of Clementius, consul in 513, on which the inscriptions
and portraits have been recarved. The portrait of Athalaric shows a young man
without diadem and an unusual costume; that of his mother shows the same
round-faced woman of the marble portraits wearing a crown. The original dip-
tych would have shown Ariadne and so the question is whether or not the por-
traits now seen were left unchanged as some suppose or reworked to represent
Amalasuentha. Given the fact that the portraits of the consul and Athalaric are
unquestionably recarved, it seems that an effort to make the female portrait
look like the queen would also have been undertaken.
It is also noteworthy that such works of art were commissioned and pro-
duced at this time. Elsewhere in the eastern empire and other territories for-
merly in the Roman Empire, portraiture in the round was a dying art form.
Already declining in the 5th century, very few portraits in stone datable to the
6th century remain and of these extremely few are imperial. Yet Theoderic and
his successors felt that such portraits should be made and placed on display, a
telling clue as to their perception of ruler art and its place in society.
9 Fuchs, “Bildnisse”, pp. 145–9.
10 Bertelli, “Ritratti”; Schade, Frauen in der Spätantike, pp. 219–24.
11 Procopius, De bello gothico, 1. 6.
12 McClanan, Representations, pp. 78–87.