Statue of a Togate Man

Roman art

This statue, which was heavily damaged by long exposure to the elements, represents a togate man with his right leg bearing his weight and his left slightly bent and moved forward. The figure is wearing a tunic and a generous toga that is wrapped around his body. The left arm is held outward, with the hand holding a scroll and the toga draped over the forearm. The right hand, lost, might have been held forward. The elements of the drapery and the meticulously carved folds date the sculpture to the end of the first century CE. The head, which is ancient but not original to the body, is crowned by hair in a cap-like style with fringe divided into differentiated locks, suggesting a date in the early second century CE.

Object details

Commentary

In 1837, during the structural renovations of the Villa Pinciana, the architect Luigi Canina arranged for the installation of various sculptures on the main facade, installing the present sculpture, of unknown provenance, on one of the four rectangular bases carved in high relief with heraldic symbols of the Borghese family and arranged on the balustrade of the terrace, flanked on the left by a sculpture with the same subject (Petrucci 2014, p. 188).

This statue, which was heavily damaged by long exposure to the elements, represents a togate man with his right leg bearing his weight and his left leg slightly bent and moved forward. The figure is wearing a tunic and a generous toga virilis that is wrapped around his body, forming a wide sinus that extends to the knee. The drapery is supported by the left forearm, which is held out, and the figure holds a volumen in his left hand. The right arm, now lost, was extended in front of the body. The balteus extends diagonally in dense folds from the figure’s right side up over the left shoulder, the umbo emerging from the balteus in the usual ‘U’ shape. The sculpture can be dated to the end of the first century CE, based on the overt richness of realistically described toga and the deep folds of the balteus.

The head, which is ancient but might not be original, is topped with hair in a cap-like style with a fringe divided in locks oriented in different directions starting from a division in the middle, suggesting a date in the early second century CE.

From the cases for which the provenance is known, we know that togate statues served an honorary function in public settings, but some of them might have been made for the private, and especially funerary, sphere.

Jessica Clementi