Preprincipate Portraits In The Round Of Caligula? Joe Geranio

[Joe Geranio]

Pre- Principate Portraits of Caligula in the Round?: The Walters, La Spezia and Dresden Heads

 

By Joe B. Geranio-

 

 

for photos: http://www.portraitsofcaligula.com/3/custom_form.htm

 

 

 

The portraiture of the Julio-Claudians is not an easy subject to examine. The essential goals of any such modern iconographic portrait study are, first, to assemble all known portraits of a given personage; second, to determine the appearance and style of each of the presumed lost prototypes on which all of the known surviving replicas are based; third, to attempt to date the creation of the lost prototype and surviving replicas and other portrait versions; and fourth to try to determine the reason(s) for the creation of each type.1 The main work to date that has been carried out is Boschung

[phil25]

My first question would be, how does one distinguish between a bust of the youthful Gaius, and those of his brothers, Nero and Drusus, who must have had statues erected to them before thir fall?

 

Phil

[M. Porcius Cato]

My first question would be, how does one distinguish between a bust of the youthful Gaius, and those of his brothers, Nero and Drusus, who must have had statues erected to them before thir fall?

 

If these portraits are correctly identified (Drusus and Nero), Caligula is readily distiniguished, no?

[phil25]

Readily. But prima facie the Drusus looks too old and the Nero looks to me like a young Tiberius.

 

But then I'm no expert - but I'd be interested to read the reasons for the attribution.

 

Phil