Detail of the Priestess Burning Incense in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, January 2018

Priestess burning incense
Roman
Imperial Period
about A.D. 125–130

Medium/Technique: Marble, from the Greek island of Paros

Dimensions Overall: 180 x 60 x 41.5 cm, 830 kg (70 7/8 x 23 5/8 x 16 5/16 in., 1829.82 lb.)
Block (White marble base): 14 x 52.7 x 64.8 cm (5 1/2 x 20 3/4 x 25 1/2 in.)
Case (painted wooden base ): 76.8 x 59.4 x 71.4 cm (30 1/4 x 23 3/8 x 28 1/8 in.)

Credit Line: Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912

Accession Number: 34.113

Collections: Ancient Greece and Rome

Classifications: Sculpture

In the polytheistic religions of ancient Greece and Rome, priests and priestesses were mediators between the realms of the human and the divine, propitiating the gods with offerings and soliciting favors from them on behalf of their human subjects. The woman represented in this over-life-size statue performs an act of sacrifice, placing incense onto a small altar by her side (her forearms and part of the altar are missing). Burning incense was a simple form of religious offering; the aromatic smoke rising to the heavens was believed to please the gods. The woman's veiled head and her presence at an altar indicate that she occupies the solemn position of a priestess in a cult, though the specific god or goddess she serves is not known.

This statue was reportedly found in 1902 in a tomb at Puteoli (present-day Pozzuoli) in southern Italy, a region in which a variety of cults flourished. The grand scale and costly material attest to the wealth and prestige of those who erected the monument in the priestess's memory, most likely members of her family. Her hairstyle-five heavy braids coiled at the top of the head-was sometimes worn by Sabina, the wife of Emperor Hadrian, as well as by other ladies in Rome at the time. The sculptor made no attempt to soften the effects of aging on the priestess's heavily lined face, heightening the impression of the earnestness expected of a Roman matron.


Catalogue Raisonné: Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 355; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 115 (additional published references); Highlights: Classical Art (MFA), p. 046.

Description: This is a full-length statue of an older Roman woman, likely a priestess, burning incense. She wears a short-sleeved tunic secured over her shoulders and upper arms with a series of buttons (the so-called gap-sleeved tunic) that extends down to the tops of her feet. A corded belt encircles her body just below her breasts where it is tied in a herculean knot. Her palla is drawn up over her head (palla capite velato) and then wound around her waist, just below the belted cord, and gathered over her bent left arm. The sandal on her remaining right foot has been carved in relief. It has a thick sole and is secured to the foot by a simple, thin thong that passes between the big toe and its neighbor. The remnants of the upper portion of a torch – attached to the right knee via a strut – indicate that the woman was likely sprinkling incense over the flames from a box held in her now missing left hand.

The woman has narrow, almond-shaped eyes with thin lids set beneath a heavy brow. She has a broad nose and a wide mouth with thin lips. Her face shows signs of advanced age: crow’s feet, pronounced naso-labial lines, sunken cheeks, and sagging jowls. She wears her hair in the so-called turban coiffure (Turbanfrisur). Five heavy braids encircle the top of her head, and the hair framing her face is parted in the middle and brushed behind her head. The back of the statue is only lightly carved, likely the result of it having been displayed within a niche in the tomb it was discovered in.

Only the uppermost section of the torch survives. The front right and center portions of the base, along with the left foot, are missing. The woman’s right hand and left forearm and hand are also missing. Her nose has also been damaged. Otherwise, the statue is in remarkably good condition with only some very light yellow-brown patina on the surface.

Scientific Analysis:
Harvard Lab No. HI757: Isotope ratios - delta13C +1.08 / delta18O -3.28, Attribution - Paros 2, Justification - Coarse grained marble with gray spots, Italian provenance.

Provenance: 1902: found in 1902 at Pozzuoli, in a ruined, vaulted tomb (see Notizie degli Scavi 1902, pp. 57-66 for plan of tomb and account of the find); by 1904: purchased in Naples by Mrs. Edward D. Brandegee, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts); purchased by MFA from Mrs. Brandegee, October 1, 1934, for $ 11,500.00

Text from: collections.mfa.org/objects/151350/priestess-burning-incense