Still On The Julio-claudian Thing

[suzhannah]

thanks for all replies,

this damn final exam in classics is doing my head in. have just bin informed of a question for my exam on friday and spent 8 hours researching, came up with nowt much.

 

i am looking for iconography of portraiture by julio-claudians. i can refer back to augustus. i see only the classical representation that augustus wanted to portray, for his piety and graciousness. i see caligula desperate to associate himself with his famous family (even tho he wasnt related to augustus), so his portrait or bust looks like augustus. i see claudius taking the step of the deified emperor a bit far in dressing up as jupiter, and lastly i see nero, even tho quite heavy, but it represents opulence nontheless, sporting a hairstyle of a hellenistic type remanisant of alexender just like pompey did.

 

do you guys have any other ideas or know any searches i can do to find out more about the iconography of the julio-claudians.

 

i so appreciate your imput.

 

thanks

suz.

 

p.s wish me luck as i have put myself in for an MA in classical civilizations next year (i must be mad!)

[phil25]

I think you will find that the family of Livius' son Drusus ( the elder) - including Germanicus, Gaius, and (I think) Claudius, are all depicted with hair growing far down the neck - Gaius was reputed to be as hairy as a goat - perhaps that was one way of representing that characteristic in marble.

 

Augustus and his grandsons Gaius and Lucius are separated and distinguished by the way the curls of hair are gathered on their foreheads.

 

Tiberius is always identifiable by a benign but rather bland physionnomy - complacent is the way I would describe his expression.

 

You know, of course, that there are no statues of Augustus as an old man?

 

Togate statues with the head covered show Augustus as pontifex maximus. Barefoot (as in the Prima Porta statue) as divine.

 

Have you looked at the Meroe head (British Museum)? There is an old catalogue of an exhibition from the 70s called "The Image of Augustus" (a BM publication) that a good university library ought to be able to obtain.

 

Look at the Ara Pacis reliefs for the entire imperial family. Also the reliefs of many of the family from the Sebasteon in Aphrodisias (Turkey).

 

There is a bronze head of Claudius from Colchester (UK) - compare that to say the colossal statue of him as Iove in the Vatican.

 

If you haven't checked out the following link, do:

 

http://www.indiana.edu/~leach/c414/juliclau.html

 

Good luck

 

Phil

[Primus Pilus]

Rome or Bust

 

A collection of a few more portraits

[Julia C]

Erm, Caligula was related to Augustus. His mother was Agrippina, who was the daughter of my namesake and Agrippa. Augustus, therefore, was Caligula's great-grandfather. Interestingly, Germanicus was the son of Drusus and Antonia, so he was the grandnephew of Augustus as well as his adoptive grandson.

 

Caligula never liked being related to Agrippa, though, so he invented a relationship between Augustus and his daughter to strengthen his patrician blood, but this was not the case. Were he not adopted by Tiberius, he would have legally been a pleb.