Portrait of Titus on a Modern Bust

Roman art

The portrait, set in a modern bust, represents Titus, the second emperor of the Flavian dynasty after his father Vespasian, reigning from 79 to 81 CE. The head, with its square and solid structure, presents the typical physiognomic features of this emperor: eyes sunken into the orbital sockets, a large nose, a tight mouth with thin lips, a prominent chin, and full cheeks. The hair, with its small, thinning curls at the back of the head but still thick on the broad forehead, likens this portrait to the earliest portrait type of the emperor, suggesting a date just prior to the start of his rule.

Object details

Commentary

The head presents a square solid structure and the face is round with full cheeks. The hair, defined by small curls made with an extensive use of the drill, is thinning on the top of the head but still thick on the broad forehead marked in the middle by two deep horizontal furrows; the hair also continues on the neck in short curly locks. The eyes, sunken in the orbital cavities, have well-marked eyelids. The large nose is framed by slight labio-nasal folds, while the mouth presents tight, thin lips; the prominent chin is round and despite a missing fragment, the central dimple is still visible.

The robust neck is set on a modern torso with a lorica and paludamentum fastened on the right shoulder, which drapes abundantly over the chest and then continues up over the left shoulder.

The head has the somatic features of the well-known image of Titus, the second emperor of the Flavian dynasty whose rule followed that of his father Vespasian, from 79 to 81 CE.

The portrait corresponds to the first portrait type of Titus (when still Caesar) as confirmed by the free rendering of the ringlets of hair on the forehead, also known as the ‘Herculaneum type’ because the best replica comes from the basilica of the Vesuvian city, probably sculpted for the prince’s return to Italy in 71 CE after the victory in Judea (Naples, MANN, inv. 6059; Rosso 2009a, p. 481, no. 83). This first type differs from the second portrait type of Titus, the so-called ‘Erbach type’, attested by over fifteen examples that present hair on the forehead defined by short curls turning to the left and interrupted by a bifurcation, created on the occasion of his accession to the throne in 79 CE (on the two different types of portrait of Titus see Rosso 2009b, p. 415, no. 11; Fittschen 1977, pp. 63–67; Bergmann-Zanker 1981, p. 375).

As emphasised by P. Zanker, the adoption of the ‘Erbach type’ denotes not only a desire to follow the fashion of that particular moment, but most importantly indicated a change in the political message of the official image, adhering – in the treatment of the hair – to the main type of the iconography of the emperor Claudius, the last divus of the Julio-Claudian gens (Zanker 2009).

The extensive use of the drill in the rendering of the hair on the Borghese head seems to find comparison in an antique replica of the same type, conserved in the Storerooms of the Capitoline Museums (inv. 3361, see Fittschen, Zanker 1985, p. 34, no. 30), which like ours depicts Titus Caesar at the age of forty, shortly before becoming emperor.

Jessica Clementi