What the Romans would have made of Diana’s statue

The recently unveiled funerary monument of Princess Diana prompts comparison with Greek and Roman archetypes.

To many, Diana was a heroic figure. Greek sculptors represented females as dignified figures, intricately coiffed, in graceful, loose-fitting, free-flowing tunics and ankle-length cloaks, with contrasting vertical and diagonal folds. Males were nude, a public statement of power and physical perfection, as if human significance did not end in death. Both were idealised figures, illustrating character and quality, not likeness. There is no hint of heroic ideals in this Diana, dressed presumably as a nursery teaching assistant.

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She does not even look like Diana, an attractive, delicate-featured woman. For Romans, in contrast to Greeks, likeness was of the highest importance, since only thus could a strong sense of personality emerge and the real memory of the dead be perpetuated. That said, however, they were not especially interested in the rapport between head and body.