Portrait of Domitian
Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus (r. 81-96) was the last emperor of the Flavian line. Here he is depicted wearing a cuirass and a draped mantle clasped by a round fibula on his left shoulder. His head is turned to the left. His forehead is nearly completely covered by his dense hair, while his facial features are rendered in a quite conventional fashion.
The work forms part of a series of 16 imperial busts in porphyry and alabaster, which critics date to the 17th century. Formerly held in Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio, where they are documented from 1676, they have been displayed in Room 4 in Villa Pinciana since the early 1830s.
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
This bust portrays Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus, who ruled the Roman Empire from 81 until he was assassinated in 96. The emperor’s head is turned slightly to his left. He wears the paludamentum, which is buttoned on his left shoulder with a round fibula decorated with a floral motif. Beneath we see the lorica, the cuirass which covered only the bust. His forehead is almost completely covered by his hair: in ancient representations of Domitian at a mature age he was shown with a wig that hid his baldness. We also note a small bulge above his nose. While Domitian’s face was actually lean, here it is shown full and rounded, with unusually fleshy lips and without the characteristic dimple in the centre of his chin. The bust is a conventional depiction of the subject, based on the incorporation of several distinctive characteristics into a facial type that is similar to those of other portraits of the series.
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
Bibliography
- P. de’ Sebastiani, Viaggio curioso de’ palazzi e ville più notabili di Roma, Roma 1683, p. 26.
- F. Deseine, Description de la ville de Rome en faveur des étrangers, Lyon 1690, II, p. 50.
- P. Rossini, Il Mercurio errante delle grandezze di Roma, tanto antiche, che moderne, Roma 1693, p. 41.
- G.P. Pinaroli, Trattato delle cose più memorabili di Roma tanto antiche come moderne, che in essa di presente si trovano, Roma 1725, III, p. 12.
- F. de’ Ficoroni, Le singolarità di Roma moderna, Roma 1744, p. 51.
- G. Roisecco, Roma antica e moderna, Roma 1750, II, p. 109.
- R. Venuti, Accurata, e succinta descrizione topografica, e istorica di Roma moderna, Roma 1766, p. 170.
- M. Vasi, Itinerario istruttivo di Roma e delle sue adiacenze, Roma 1794, I, p. 392.
- C. Fea, Nuova descrizione di Roma antica e moderna e de’ suoi contorni, sue rarità specialmente dopo le nuove scoperte cogli scavi: arricchita delle vedute più interessanti, Roma 1820, II, p. 481.
- A. Nibby, Itinerario di Roma e delle sue vicinanze, vol. 2, Roma 1830, p. 360.
- A. Nibby, Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese, Roma 1832, p. 96.
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno MDCCCXXXVIII. Parte seconda moderna, Roma 1841, pp. 919-920.
- Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, a cura di E. Z. Platner, III, 3, Stuttgart-Tübingen 1842, p. 249.
- E. Pistolesi, Descrizione di Roma e suoi contorni, Roma, Gallarini, 1852, p. 385.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano del Palazzo della Villa Borghese, Roma 1854 (1873), I, p. 19.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, pp. 33-34.
- A. De Rinaldis, La R. Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1935, p. 13.
- A. De Rinaldis, Arte decorativa nella Galleria Borghese, in “Rassegna della Istruzione artistica”, 10-11-12, 1935, pp. 311-319, in part. p. 318.
- A. De Rinaldis, Catalogo della Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1948, p. 25.
- P. Della Pergola, La galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1951, pp. 14-15.
- I. Faldi, Galleria Borghese. Le sculture dal sec. XVI al XIX, Roma 1954, pp. 16-17, cat. 11, fig. 11r.
- H. Hibbard, Palazzo Borghese Studies. II, the Galleria, in “The Burlington magazine”, 104,1962, pp. 9-20.
- Le collezioni della Galleria Borghese, a cura di S. Staccioli, P. Moreno, Milano 1981, p. 103.
- K. Fittschen, Sul ruolo del ritratto antico nell’arte italiana, in Memoria dell’antico nell’arte italiana, II, I generi e i temi ritrovati, a cura di S. Settis, Torino 1985, pp. 383-412.
- D. Di Castro Moscati, Il porfido rosso antico, una esclusività romana, in “Gazzetta antiquaria”, 1, 1987, pp. 42-48.
- P. Moreno, C. Sforzini, I ministri del principe Camillo: cronaca della collezione Borghese di antichità dal 1807 al 1832, in “Scienze dell’Antichità”, 1, 1987, pp. 339-371.
- E. Fumagalli, Palazzo Borghese: committenza e decorazione privata, Roma 1994.
- Galleria Borghese, a cura di A. Coliva, Roma 1994, p. 15.
- Guida alla Galleria Borghese, a cura di K. Herrmann Fiore, Roma 1997, p. 43.
- D. Batorska, Designs for the Galleria in Palazzo Borghese in Rome: new proposals, in “Paragone”, 48, 1997(1998), pp. 26-45.
- M.C. Marchei, Alabastro egiziano o cotognino, onice, in Marmi antichi, a cura di G. Borghini, Roma 1997, pp. 140-141, cat. 4; Porfido rosso, Ibidem, p. 274, cat. 116.
- P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 129, fig. 2.
- E. Rosso, in Divus Vespasianus: il bimillenario dei Flavi, catalogo della mostra (Roma, Colosseo, Curia e Criptoportico "neroniano" 2009-2010), a cura di F. Coarelli, F.P. Arata, Milano 2009, pp. 418 cat. 14, 419 cat. 15, 422 cat. 17.
- V. Curzi, Allestimenti di dimore romane tra Seicento e Settecento: un itinerario nella tradizione classicista dell’Urbe, in Il capitale culturale, Supplementi 8 (2018), pp. 301-316, in part. 305-306.
- D. Del Bufalo, Porphyry. Red imperial porphyry. Power and religion, Torino 2018, p. 116, n. H79.
- Scheda di catalogo 12/01008638, S. Pellizzari 1983; aggiornamento S. Felici 2020.
