Amore di mamma: gesti materni sui monumenti funerari dell’Italia romana

The paper analyses the iconographical representations of physical contacts between mother and child, sculpted on funerary monuments with portraits. It is based on the monuments proceeding from the territories between Rome and the Alps, dated from the 1st to the 3rd century A.D: the maximum concentration of such gestures is comprised between Claudian and Antonine period, and evidence is limited to Rome and the Adriatic coast. By relating these monuments to the literary and social context of Roman family, the analysis of the iconographical and epigraphical features contributes to delineate the importance of domestic love in shaping sepulchral familiar representations and in communicating the social role of women inside the household.