Artist creates photo realisitc portraits of emperors

[Crispina]

I just saw this awhile ago.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/21/21395115/roman-emperors-photorealistic-portraits-ai-artbreeder-dan-voshart

[guy]

Thank you.

 

These are very powerful portraits, if they are even just close to being accurate. I would also like to see a similar images of their wives. 😎

 

 

The portraits of Septimius Severus and his children (Caracalla and Geta) certainly reflect their Carthaginian (North African) origins: 

 

 

Nero looks the part of the scoundrel:

 

Here's another depiction of Nero from a different source:

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-spanish-artist-made-a-life-like-sculpture-of-nero-and-it-s-just-how-you-d-imagine

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Nero was initially named Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus before he was adopted by the emperor Claudius in the year 50 CE. For Latin lovers, ahenobarbus translates as "red bearded".

Thank you, again,

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited October 26, 2021 by guy

[caesar novus]

Quote

The portraits of Septimius Severus and his children (Caracalla and Geta) certainly reflect their Carthaginian (North African) origins:

Portraits look Berber to me, with past experience of traveling north and south Algeria. But  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbers#Antiquity sez:

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the interactions between Berbers and Phoenicians were often asymmetrical. The Phoenicians worked to keep their cultural cohesion and ethnic solidarity, and continuously refreshed their close connection with Tyre, the mother city.

...

[Berbers] persisted largely unassimilated, as a separate, submerged entity, as a culture of mostly passive urban and rural poor within the civil structures created by Punic rule.

...

emperor Septimius Severus, who was a North African of Roman/Punic ancestry (perhaps with some Berber blood)

 

Smells like another case of trying to diversify historical figures to suite modern tastes, against (admittedly sparse) evidence, like Macedonian Cleopatra was a few years ago.

[guy]

The Severan Tondo is contemporary with Septimius Severus, depicting Septimius, his wife and two children. The defaced face is supposedly Geta who suffered damnatio memoriae.

I always found it interesting that Septimius Severus spoke with a Punic accent. (Historia Augusta, XIX.9) H

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In person he was large and handsome. His beard was long; his hair was grey and curly, his face was such as to inspire respect. His voice was clear, but retained an African accent even to his old age.

 

His sister could scarcely speak Latin at all, XV.7:

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His sister from Leptis once came to see him, and, since she could scarcely speak Latin, made the emperor blush for her hotly. 

 

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Septimius_Severus*.html

g.

Edited October 26, 2021 by guy

[guy]

 

Edited September 5, 2020 by guy

[Crispina]

I didn't notice the cross symbols' meanings before.

[caesar novus]

Oh, I thought Rome was famous for an actual sub Saharan emperor or two, who was technically of another race and wide culture gap. Maybe the case for some generals, but if we are talking only of Berber-ness for a couple of emperors I am less impressed with that as proof of Roman broad mindedness.

Today (or for me, a few decades ago) if you travel deep south into Berber speaking areas it seems like you are getting more into a Euro comfort zone than the Arab coast. The Berbers are proud and distant, but are every visitor's favorite companions. Like guides who deign to lead you and feed you rather than engage in the banality of talk, but there is somehow an easy cultural compatibility.

In contrast there is a jolting cultural transition for instance entering southern Egypt. Not a negative thing -  it is way more friendly and less hard sell to Euro visitors than the coastal north. But now and probably 2000 years ago the sub Sahara would seem a less likely cultural seedbed for a leader of Roman life.

The draft of my previous post tried to include map of Berber settlement areas in northern Africa with no luck, maybe png not supported? Anyway I stripped that out, along with accompanying caveats... EDIT: now it works:

Edited September 5, 2020 by caesar novus

[guy]

I think some of the features of the emperors may be totally imaginary.

For many, if not most of the emperors, there is only numismatic evidence and a few sculptures to recreate these images. Carus and his heirs (Carinus and Numerian) may have been from either Gaul, Illyricum , or Africa. These diverse backgrounds would give very different physical features (eyes, hair, and skin) from those proposed.

 

g.

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by guy

[Crispina]

Ulpia Severina?  A woman? Husband and wife?  Both killed. I'll have to find out more.

Edited September 6, 2020 by Crispina

[Miloslavius]

 Thank you a very inspiring thought.