Catalog Entry: Portrait of a Roman Man (Original)
Name: Portrait of a Roman Man
Collection: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Inventory Number: Hm 329
Date Created: Last third of the first century BCE
Date Acquired: Between 1723 and 1726 donated to Augustus the Strong by Friedrich Wilhelm I (ex-Brandenburg Collection).
Sculptor: Unknown
Material: Marble
Dimensions: Height 34.5 cm
Description:
The portrait shows a beardless old Roman man with a closely-cropped head of hair and showing clear signs of age. The head, which is slightly turned to the right, was made to be inserted into a sculpture, presumably a togate statue. As individualized as the portrait of the man might appear to be, it is not a straightforward realistic rendering. The brutally charming reproduction of the marks of old age is typical of male portraits of the late Republic. The point of these images is to emphasize certain features and to praise the subject's virtues. Thus the verism of the Republican male portraits should be read as an image-based code which refers to the subject's strength of character and endurance. In an expressly unpretentious way the portraits show unadorned personalities who apply their conservative values to themselves and those around them.
Exactly who is portrayed in this bust can no longer be determined with any certainty. But it is probable that this individual belonged to Rome's middle class, which to a large extent consisted of former slaves (liberti).
Bibliography:
- West, R. Römische Porträtplastik 1 (München, 1933) Nr. 42, figure 11.
- Koch, H. Römische Kunst (Weimar, 1949) 1287, figure 44b.
- Zanker, P. "Rezeption der hellenistischen Individualporträts", Abhandlungen der Wiss. I. Göttingen, phil. Hist. Klasse 1976, 594n61.
- Raumschüssel, I., in Kordelia Knoll, Heiner Protzmann, Ingeborg Raumschüssel, Martin Raumschüssel, Die Antiken im Albertinum. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Skulpturensammlung (Mainz, 1993) 52f. Nr. 29.
- D`Apuzzo, M. G. I segni del tempo. Metamorfosi della vecchiaia nell`arte dell`Occidente (Bologna, 2006) 85, fig. 65.
- Bestandskatalog der Kunstsammlungen. Antiken I. Kurfürstliche und Königliche Erwerbungen für Schlösser und Gärten Brandenburg-Preussens vom 17. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin, 2009) 47 (catalog nr. 26) with illustration.
Photographs:
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