The surface of this portrait of a boy, inserted in a non-ancient bust, is heavily abraded. The figure has large, deep-set, protruding eyes, with slightly incised pupils and framed by heavy eyelids. The slightly open mouth is small and has thin lips. The cheeks are round and plump. The forehead is hidden by a fringe of thick full locks that radiate out from the top of the head, becoming more voluminous over the forehead, temples and nape. The volumetric and chiaroscuro rendering of the boy’s thick, unruly hair dates the Borghese sculpture, which might have had a funerary function, to the early Antonine period.
Borghese Collection, cited for the first time in 1820; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese, 1833, C, p. 44, no. 50 (Room I). Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
This portrait of a boy, inserted in a non-ancient bust, is of unknown provenance. In 1820, it was restored by Felice Festa, who also worked on other busts earmarked for display in Room I in niches high up on the walls, as part of the ambitious installation of the new collection in the Casino of Villa Pinciana.
The surface of the portrait is heavily abraded. The figure has large, deep-set, protruding eyes, with slightly incised pupils and framed by heavy eyelids and thin eyebrows. The slightly open mouth is small and has thin lips. The cheeks are round and plump. The forehead is completely hidden by a fringe of thick full locks that radiate out from the top of the head, becoming more voluminous over the forehead, temples and nape. The long, soft, full hair, carved mainly with a chisel, was given movement with a running drill on the forehead and at the temples. The volumetric and chiaroscuro rendering of the boy’s thick, unruly hair, a trend documented between the Hadrianic period and the early Severan period, dates the Borghese sculpture to the same cultural climate as the splendid portrait in the Capitoline Museum (Sala degli Imperatori, inv, S414; Perrella 2011), the pupils of which are similar to those of the Borghese head, and the portrait from the Polignac Collection and now in Berlin (Staatliche Museen, Antikensammlung, Sk407 (R63), Caporossi 2012), both of which are also private portraits from the early Antonine period and might have had a funerary function.
Jessica Clementi