Portrait of Claudius as Jupiter, with a modern head of Tiberius

Roman art

This sculpture portrays the divinised Emperor Claudius in the guise of Jupiter. The portrait head of Tiberius and the eagle to the figure’s right were added during a restoration. The portrait type seems to date to Tiberius’s early reign, in the first half of the first century CE. 

The statue was unearthed in the Lucidi vineyard on the Borghese estate, between Monte Porzio and Frascati, in 1820 and was restored by the sculptor Massimiliano Laboureur. In 1832, it was on view in the Salone.

Object details

Commentary

This sculpture was unearthed in 1820 during excavations commissioned by Prince Camillo Borghese in a vineyard owned by the family in Santa Croce, between Monte Porzio and Frascati, given in emphyteusis to Cesare Lucidi. It was described as ‘a statue thought to be a Domitian, but missing the head, part of the arms and part of the feet and the base’ (Valenti 2003, p. 188, note 14; Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Archivio Borghese, B. 8096, p. 43, no. 195: Moreno, Sforzini 1987, pp. 348–350). In August of that same year, Massimiliano Laboureur was hired to restore the sculpture, at which time it was described as ‘an ancient statue in Greek marble, larger than life size, the attributes of which suggest a Domitian. Missing part of the arms and legs, lacking a head and some of the pleating and its base’. The work order specified that the added parts had to be in ancient marble. In August 1822, an isolated payment attests to the addition of the eagle: ‘To Sir Fran(ces)co Massimiliano Laboureur Sculptor 10 s(cudi) for a Marble Eagle added to the Statue […] of a Domitian’ (Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Archivio Borghese, B. 8096, p. 219, no. 225). Inside the Palazzina Borghese, Nibby reported that the sculpture was in its current location in the salone. Based on the clothing and presence of the eagle, he interpreted it as a statue of Jupiter with a head of Tiberius attached. He held that ‘it should be assigned to the Antonine period’ (p. 43).  Bernoulli described it simply as a heroic statue, but doubted the antiquity of the head (1886, p. 148, no. 14). Venturi also observed: ‘It is likely that it represents an emperor, but the absence of a head does not allow us to establish which one’ (1893 p. 14). In 1925, Lippold carried out a close examination of the sculpture and determined that the following were added: the head, the right arm from the base up, the left forearm, the top of the right foot and part of the ankle, the left calf and the part of the mantle behind it and the eagle. He considered the ends of the taeniae on the shoulders antique. He proposed comparing the statue with the Marcellus in Naples (1925, p. 3, no. 2713). Calza held that it was a ‘divinised emperor of the Olympia type’, probably Claudius, with a modern head (1957, p. 14, no. 122). In 1976, Moreno identified the head as modern, ‘set on a statue of an emperor as Jupiter, which was in all probability Claudius’, considering it an elegant copy of the youthful Tiberius portrait type. Based this observation and noting similarities with a portrait of the emperor unearthed in Gabi in 1792 and moved to the Louvre in 1807, the scholar mistakenly imagined that the Gabi statue had served as the model for the modern Borghese sculpture before the former was moved (1975–1976, p. 139). This theory is chronologically implausible, however, since the statue was unearthed in 1820, as subsequently noted (starting with Moreno, Sforzini 1987, pp. 347–348, 350). Nevertheless, the clear resemblance between the two suggests that the Gabi sculpture could have been a model for the Borghese copy, known through Visconti’s reproduction (1797, no. 39) and perhaps a cast made before the original was sent to Paris.

Bieber observed that ‘the Romans used Greek figures of Zeus and Jupiter exclusively for representing emperors and princes’. The Romans then added a mantle to increase the divine aura. Bieber also identified, besides the Borghese replica, which he considered poor, two other statues of Claudius, the one from Olympia and another, now in the Vatican, from Civita Lavinia, which he judged ‘by far the best’. All three wear the effectively and decoratively draped rounded mantle (1977, p. 42, fig. 93). Linfert compared it with a Jupiter in Villa Albani (1982, p. 437 no. 2). Fittschen, instead proposed comparison with the Capitoline head (1985, p. 32, no. 26, note 1).

The figure is represented standing, in a slightly dynamic pose emphasised by the slightly wide stance of the legs. The weight seems to be supported the right leg, while the left leg is moved slightly back.  The lean body is nude, except for the drapery that covers the lower half. The himation is held on the hips in a wide umbo, a band of horizontal folds, and is draped over the left arm, which is held outward. The figure holds a gladium in his left hand, pointed inward. His right arm is held out. There is an eagle with spread wings to the emperor’s right, looking up at him.

The emperor is depicted in divine apotheosis, in the guise of Jupiter and shares strong similarities with a statue in the Sala rotonda of Museo Pio Clementino in the Vatican Museums, portraying the third official portrait type and datable to the period shortly after his reign (37–54 CE), the period to which the Borghese can also be dated (Inv. 243: Lippold 1939, p. 137, no. 550, pls 40–42). 

Giulia Ciccarello