A painted portrait from the Augustan period in the Municipium Augusta Bilbilis (Calatayud, Zaragoza, Spain)

Abstract This analysis focuses on a young female portrait enclosed within an eight-pointed frame, located in the upper zone of a wall fragment discovered among a substantial assemblage of painted plaster within the fill of the torcularium of the Domus del Larario in the Municipium Augusta Bilbilis. The wall to which this fragment originally belonged likely formed part of a cubiculum within the same domus. The portrait is dated to the last quarter of the 1st c. BCE, making it the earliest known example of its kind to date. This study examines the potential significance of the portrait within one of the most prominent domus of the site, as well as its role in the broader figurative program of the wall it once adorned. In the middle zone of the composition, a couple is portrayed in a highly schematic manner. Together with the young female – likely their daughter – this may represent one of the earliest Roman depictions of a family group in a non-funerary context.