Portrait of a Man

Roman art

This head of an adult male, unearthed during excavations at Vigna Lucidi (1820), has short curly hair depicted flat against the head with no volume. The figure’s high, broad forehead is marked by three horizontal lines and his arched brow bone is low and slightly protruding, with downy brows. His large, deep-set eyes are looking upward, and his pupils are shield-shaped. A soft, thick beard covers his face and the area under his chin. On the basis of a few stylistic details, including the treatment of the hair, colouristic rendering of the beard, detached gaze and controlled but severe and melancholic expression, this private portrait can be dated to the period between the rule of Alexander Severus (222–235 CE) and the early part of that of Gallienus (253–268 CE).

Object details

Commentary

This head was discovered along with other marble sculptures during excavations carried out in 1820 by Cesare Lucidi in the Borghese vineyard on the road that stretched from Labicana to the theatre of Tuscolo. It was restored by Felice Festa in September of that year and then installed with other busts from the same location in the niches high up on the walls in Room I.

The head, which is inserted in a non-ancient bust and portrays an adult male, is slightly turned to the right in relation to what would have been the orientation of the original bust or statue. The short curly hair is depicted flat against the head with no volume, coming down sinuously from the temples to behind the ears. The high, broad forehead is marked by three deeply incised horizontal lines, rendered in such a way as to suggest muscular contraction. The arched brow bone is low and slightly protruding, with downy brows. The figure’s large, deep-set eyes are looking upward, and his pupils are shield-shaped. Further wrinkles around his eyes, the heavy eyelids and the slightly sunken eyeballs indicate the figure’s mature age. A soft, thick beard covers his face and the area under his chin.

On the basis of a few stylistic details, including the treatment of the hair, colouristic rendering of the beard, detached gaze and controlled but severe and melancholic expression, the portrait can be dated to the period between the rule of Alexander Severus (222–235 CE) and the early part of that of Gallienus (253–268 CE). This was a time marked by a kind of ‘Renaissance’ defined by a classical reaction against the preceding expressionism and during which the ideal model was considered that of the Antonine period.

In the Borghese portrait, we can see the beginning of a shift towards the geometric construction of the forms of the face, in keeping with a trend found in a few portraits of Caracalla and later accentuated in portraits of Maximinus Thrax. The marked realism, which is accompanied by the stylisation of the facial features and an initial breaking-up of forms, anticipates a few of the expressive features that became typical of portraits of soldier emperors in the third quarter of the third century CE.

Jessica Clementi