Los retratos atribuidos de Fulvia Plautilla conservados en los Museos Vaticanos: reflexiones sobre un problema de identificación y su trascendencia simbólica

Abstract

Fulvia Plautilla, wife of Caracalla and daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, Septimius Seve- rus´praetorian prefect, was honoured like Augusta in 201 after her sponsalia. From that time onwards, and especially from the moment she married Lepcitan princeps´ first – born son, her images began to be made in Rome and in the provinces, both on coins and in portraits. However. the damnatio memoriae to which she was subjected makes the portraiture of Augusta complex to analyse, as throughout history different portraits have been attributed to her by the scientific community on the basis of purely stylistic criteria. On the basis of the various catalogues, we have been able to identify nine portraits held in the Vatican Museums that have been attributed to her. In this work we will aim to analyse each of the pieces in detail. For us, it is very important to attend, in addition to the matching of the physiognomic and stylistic characteristics with the coins, the archaeological context in which the portraits were found, the presence of some attribute that marks their belonging to the imperial family, the existence of more copies in other contexts, as well as the damnatio memoriae signs.