Comparison of the Depiction of Women in Art

Both the Portrait Bust of a Flavian Woman from the Early Roman Empire (see left) and the Female Mask from Mende, Sierra Leone (see right) portray the ideal form of a woman, but do so in opposing manners. The Flavian bust was carved from marble circa 90 CE, and used contemporary fashion to depict idealized beauty without concern for conveying Roman Republican virtues as earlier statues did. The African Female Mask, too, is a portrayal of idealizedfemale beauty, but also expresses the virtues of the Mende woman’s role in society as a wife, mother, and provider. In an overt example of the way in which the definition of beauty varies from time period to time period and from culture to culture, the Flavian Woman exhibits an elegant and delicate neck while the African mask boasts a large, rolling neck—both of which were considered marks ofbeauty by their respective societies.