In the Roman empire from the reign of Augustus to the third century CE, more portraits of women stood in public spaces than at any other moment in history. These portrait statues not only demonstrate the importance of women in society, but they also provide a visual guide to social expectations. Our exhibition, The Statue Industry of Beauty, looks at how the portrait statues of women belonging to Rome’s first imperial family, the Julio-Claudians, were designed, made, and distributed throughout the empire. 

The exhibition presents versions of these statues in different media – marble, plaster, plastic — and made by different techniques – free-hand sculpting, casting in molds, and 3D printing. Offering new insights into the aesthetics, politics, and cultural heritage of the early empire, these objects ask viewers to reflect on artisanry and market value as well as the fundamental problems of female representation made for a male audience.