Statue of a togate boy

Roman art

The statue depicts a boy standing on his weight-bearing right leg, with the left leg bent and out to the side. The figure wears a tunic and a full toga that drapes the body in a wide swath down to the knee. He holds the drapery in his right hand near the hip, and supports the fabric on his outstretched left forearm. In his left hand is a scroll. On his feet are the calcei patricii, the typical footwear of members of the imperial house and private members of patrician rank. The head, which is modern, was probably added during the 19th century restoration. The official iconography of the togate Roman citizen was also adopted for children, beginning with the reliefs of the Ara Pacis from the Augustan age, when the garment acquired a strong representative value. Stylistic elements allow us to date the Borghese statue to the Neronian age, possibly with an honorary or funerary function.

Object details

Commentary

This small statue depicts a boy wearing a toga. The right leg bears his weight, while the left is slightly bent and off to the side. The figure wears a tunic and a full toga praetexta that wraps around the body forming a wide sinus down to the knee. The right hand holds the drapery at the hip, while the left supports it on the outstretched forearm. In his left hand is a volumen. From the right side, the balteus rises diagonally over the left shoulder with thick folds, while the umbo, small in size, emerges from the balteus with the characteristic U shape. On his feet are the calcei patricii, with four corrigiae fastened with two overlapping knots, the typical footwear of members of the imperial house and private members of patrician rank. The modern head was probably added during the 19th century restoration, when the sculpture - which according to Nibby may have come from the excavations at Gabi - was displayed in Room V.

The elements of the drapery, which almost completely conceals the young body, are typical of the early imperial age. Closer comparisons can be made with examples from the Julio-Claudian period, such as the portrait statue of a prince-child (Nero?), with a toga and bulla, found in the Capitolium area of Luni (Cadario 2015).

The official iconography of the togated civis romanus was also adopted for children starting with the reliefs of the Ara Pacis from the Augustan age. In fact, beginning with the principate of Augustus, the togated statue was widely adopted, in keeping with the strong representative value attributed by the princeps to this garment, particularly in the velato capite variant.

Like the hairstyle, clothing also played an important role in defining social and religious status: at around the age of 15 or 16, boys would shed their toga praetexta, offering it to Heracles or the household Lares, and put on the toga virilis [toga of manhood], known as libera or pura. They were then paraded in the Forum in it and officially received into the civic body. In the Borghese sculpture the symbol of childhood, the bulla, is missing, the circular pendant often reproduced in this period both in private iconic statuary, bearing witness to the free birth explicit particularly in the case of the sons of freedmen, and in the official one, in which it distinguishes princes who have not yet reached the legal age of adulthood.

Where the provenance of the preserved togate statues is known, it attests to their use in an honorary function in public contexts. However, it cannot be ruled out that some of the examples were also intended for the private sphere, particularly as funerary statuary.

The practice of draping the toga in the style of the Borghese statue - which is part of the Ba group in the typology developed by Goette - spread from the Augustan age and, with rare examples, continued until the Severan age. However, stylistic elements allow the sculpture in question to be dated to the Neronian age.

Jessica Clementi