Bruttia Crispina (164-191 A.D.) was from an aristocratic Roman family, originally from Volceii in Lucania. She married then sixteen-year-old Commodus in 178 A.D., while her father-in-law Marcus Aurelius was still Emperor. Upon her marriage she was given the title of Augusta and was honored by public images, including statues and coins, during the final years of Marcus Aurelius’ reign and continuing into that of her husband’s. In 188 A.D. she was falsely accused of adultery and banished to Capri, where she was executed in 191 A.D.
According to the Roman writer Herodian (History of the Roman Empire since the Death of Marcus Aurelius, 1.14.8), Commodus “discarded his family name and issued orders that he was to be called not Commodus, son of Marcus, but Hercules, son of Zeus. Abandoning the Roman and imperial mode of dress, he donned the lion skin, and carried the club of Hercules…” He had himself depicted as Hercules in marble (see the famous portrait bust now in the Capitoline Museum, no. 174 in H. von Heintze, Roman Art) as well as on coins (see nos. 277 and 279 in A. Pangerl, Portraits, 500 Years of Roman Coin Portraits).
Given Commodus’ perversion, it is not surprising to find a portrait of his wife Crispina also depicted wearing the lion skin of Hercules, thus in the guise of the hero’s consort Omphale. While the image is idealized, certain details, such as the treatment of the center-parted hair, the triangular peak of her forehead and the heavy-lidded articulated eyes, are well known from her surviving portraits (see for example in the Louvre, no. 151 in K. de Kersauson, Catalogue des portraits romains, Tome II).