Family women: portraits of freedwomen and their patrons on Roman funerary monuments

Abstract

Freedmen’s monuments have an important role in the understanding of Roman funerary art: many scholars have stressed the importance of portraits of their families, by focussing their attention more on male than female members. This paper analyzes the representations of “couples” formed by patrons and freedwomen, trying to highlight if it was possible to visually understand whether they were married or not. The study moves through monuments with such family portraits proceeding from Rome and central-northern Italy, analyzing iconographical schemas, dress, gestures and commemoration patterns. In the last part, the paper discusses chances offered by iconography to understand freedwomen “kin” and relations and proposes some reflections on familiar role of female former-slaves.