Roman Portraits

[Germanicus]

I've often been and checked out the great images on these sites that I stumbled across - wondered if anyone else had:-

 

 

C414-Republican sculpture

Antonine Portraits

Trajianic sculpture

 

There's more than just these three. Hope you enjoy as much as I do.

 

Flavian Portraits

Julio-Claudian Portrait Sculpture

[Primus Pilus]

An excellent find PM... a fanstastic collection courteous of Indiana University (just giving them credit)

 

Pinned this topic.

[Germanicus]

It's Germanicus PP, not PM, but as they say in Thailand, Mai Ben Lai (It doesn't matter)

[Primus Pilus]

It's Germanicus PP, not PM, but as they say in Thailand, Mai Ben Lai (It doesn't matter)

 

Whooops, sorry 'bout that Germanicus

[Joe Geranio]

It's Germanicus PP, not PM, but as they say in Thailand, Mai Ben Lai (It doesn't matter)

 

Whooops, sorry 'bout that Germanicus

 

 

There is nothing like Roman Iconography!! Another great site is insecula.com

 

Joe Geranio

[phil25]

It's Germanicus PP, not PM, but as they say in Thailand, Mai Ben Lai (It doesn't matter)

 

Whooops, sorry 'bout that Germanicus

 

 

There is nothing like Roman Iconography!! Another great site is insecula.com

 

Joe Geranio

 

Roman portrait sculpture is a fascinating subject. Wherever I travel I try to seek out examples in museums and galleries. The Room of Emperors in the Capitoline Museum in Rome and the nearby room with unidentified portrait busts always hold me for ages and I have many many photographs of the busts and faces found there.

 

While we all know that Roman portrait sculpture was not about character as we might understand it, I can still find pleasure in seeking to put character into these faces. There's one head in the british Museum that comes (I think) from Cyprus, in white marble, of a young man - and the impression is (to me at least) one of chillingly and implacable coldness (the face of a Roman Heydrich perhaps!!. He is always the villain in the Roman novel I keep working at - the remorseless and vengeful enemy of the honest young hero.

 

I also love the collection of full length statues in the Naples Museum which are said to be of the Nonii Balbi from Herculaneum - they include two equestrian portraits said to be of father and son. I have read that a "new" head of Marcus Nonius Balbus was found near the suburban baths in Herculaneum a few years ago - but I have never seen this published. Does any other poster here know of it, or of photos of it?

 

I also enjoy studying the late (in date) mummy portraits from the Fayum and elsewhere, which seem (again probably falsely) to bring life back to these long dead people.

 

Anyone else here share my fascinations?

 

Phil

[M. Porcius Cato]

Anyone else here share my fascinations?

 

I do! I raised the topic briefly under the Eternal Questions thread.

 

Personally, I've always greatly admired the veristic portraits from the Republic. These portraits didn't idealize their subjects the way the Greek ones did (compare the portrait of Perikles to Cicero for example; or better, Alexander to Pompey). Instead of kalos kagathos (the good and the beautiful), we get severitas et auctoritas. Very Roman. Still, for all the realism and individuality of the veristic portraits, I can't help but think when I see them that I could be looking at a Wall Street stock-trader or Milwaukee shop-keeper--there's something about that stern and crabby demeanor that's universal.