Portrait of Titus
This bust forms part of a series of 16 sculptures held at the family palazzo in Campo Marzio and then transferred to Villa Pinciana. It represents Emperor Titus, reproducing the physiognomy that has been passed down to us through ancient portraiture. His square face is framed by small locks of hair which partially cover his forehead, which in turn shows deep furrows. His arched eyebrows convey an expression of determination; his nose is large and his lips fleshy. The alabaster paludamentum encloses his bust, passing under his right armpit and fastened by a round fibula on his left shoulder.
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.
Exhibitions
- 1995/1996 C.B.C. Coop. a.r.l.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1995/1996 C.B.C. Coop. a.r.l.
Commentary
This portrait of Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasianus (r. 79-81) is characterised by a square face turned slightly to the left. His hair is composed of long locks combed back over the temples and shorter ones lining the top of his forehead. His brow reveals deep horizontal furrows. His eyebrows arch notably toward the outer part of his eyes, lending his gaze an expression of determination. Dark rings are clearly visible under his eyes. His prominent nose descends close to his upper lip, surrounded by shallow nasolabial folds. His lips are fleshy, while his protruding chin shows a dimple. A double chin separates his face from his neck. These facial features correspond to those of representations of the emperor that have come down to us through ancient portraits.
His bust is partially covered by the paludamentum, which wraps under his right arm and is buttoned with a round fibula on his left shoulder; a lorica musculata and a tunic are visible beneath the mantle.
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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