Portrait of Claudius
Ancient sources have given us ample accounts of the defects of the Emperor Claudius, and not only physical ones. This bust faithfully reflects some of the physiognomic traits of those descriptions, in particular the furrowed brow and protruding ears. Executed by an anonymous sculptor, this work in porphyry and alabaster forms part of a series of 16 portraits of Roman emperors. Beginning in the last quarter of the 17th century, they were displayed in the Gallery of Mirrors in Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio; from at least 1832, they occupy Room 4 of Villa Pinciana, where polychrome sculptures from the Collection were brought together, according to the taste of the times. Critics agree that the works were executed in the 17th century.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
porphyry and oriental alabaster
Dimensions
Provenance
Included in decoration of the Gallery of Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio between 1674 and 1676 (H. Hibbard, ‘Palazzo Borghese Studies. II, the Galleria’, The Burlington Magazine, 104 (1962), pp. 9-20); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, C, p. 49, no. 111. Purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1995/1996 C.B.C. Coop. a.r.l.
Commentary
The bust depicts Emperor Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (r. 41-54), essentially respecting descriptions of him which have come down from antiquity, which foregrounded his numerous physical defects. He is shown here at a mature age, in accordance with the fact that he was 51 years old when he came to the throne: we note in particular the deep wrinkles that groove his forehead, the sides of his nose and his mouth; the bags under his eyes; and a conspicuous divot at the top of his nose. Although not well defined, his hair is clearly parted in the centre in the typical ‘pincer’ style; above all, at the highest point and at the back of his head the effect is that of a skull cap, which exalts the protrusion of his ears. All of these features are present in surviving ancient portraits of the emperor.
The alabaster bust shows a broad paludamentum buttoned on his right shoulder with a round fibula, beneath which the lorica (short cuirass) and tunic are just visible. A second inventory number (704) can be seen on the right hem of the bust.
The work forms part of a series of 16 busts in porphyry from Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio: they reproduce the Twelve Caesars narrated by Suetonius, with the addition of Nerva and Trajan and second versions of Vitellius and Titus. They were formerly placed in recesses in the gallery and framed by an arrangement of plaster reliefs depicting key episodes in the life of each and personifications of their respective virtues; this decoration was executed by Cosimo Fancelli between 1674 and 1676 (Hibbard 1962). The busts remained here until roughly 1830 (Nibby, p. 360): two years later, they are documented as forming part of the display of Room 4 of Villa Pinciana (Nibby 1832, p. 96). To the series was now added a second bust of Vespasian, sculpted by Tommaso Fedeli in 1619, which had been in the Gladiator Room.
According to documents from the Borghese Archive, the series was composed, as we have seen, of the ‘Twelve Caesars’, with the addition of Nerva and Trajan as well as second versions of Vitellius and Titus (Vatican Secret Archive, AB, b. 5688, no. 15, published in Hibbard 1962, appendix, doc. I, pp. 19-20). In 1830 Nibby saw the series when it was still in Campo Marzio, describing the works as ‘16 busts with heads in porphyry, representing the 12 Caesars and 4 consuls’. Two years later, when they had been moved to Villa Pinciana and displayed along the wall of Room 4, he listed them as Trajan, Galba, Claudius, Otho, Vespasian (two exemplars) Scipio Africanus, Agrippa, Augustus, Vitellius (two exemplars), Titus, Nero, Cicero, Domitian, Vespasian, Caligula and Tiberius; this catalogue was confirmed by the 1833 Inventario Fidecommissario.
Yet if this description (which includes a second Vespasian, executed by Tommaso Fedeli in 1619 and transferred from the Gladiator Room) corresponds to the current state of the series, we are left with several uncertainties: to begin with, we must ask what happened to the busts of Caesar, Titus and Nerva, which were present in 1674-76 but do not form part of the series today; secondly, we must wonder who the fourth consul referred to by Nibby in 1830 could be, given that currently only three are represented (Agrippa, Cicero and Scipio Africanus); and finally, we must inquire where the busts of the consuls came from. It is therefore possible that the sculptures displayed in the gallery, which were already present in Palazzo Borghese, did not correspond to those envisioned for the iconographic programme of the vault: this discrepancy may have indeed complicated the identification of the portraits. This theory is supported by the common date of execution of the busts, which critics believe were all sculpted in the same period during the 17th century (Faldi 1954, pp. 16-17; Della Pergola, 1974; Moreno, C. Stefani, 2000, p. 129; Del Bufalo 2018, p. 116).
Sonja Felici
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