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 left leg bearing his weight and his right leg 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 outstretched in a gesture of offering, now lost, with the toga draped over the forearm. The right arm is held out in front of the body. The elements of the drapery and the precise carving of the folds, which can still be appreciated despite the damage to the surface, allow us to date the sculpture to the end of the first century CE.

The bad state of preservation of the head, which is probably not ancient, prevents detailed analysis.

Object details

Commentary

In 1837, during the structural renovation 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 right 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 left leg bearing his weight and his right 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 left arm is extended in a gesture of offering, now lost, while the right is held out in front of the body. Repairs were made to the ‘forearm and five fingers of the right hand, restored’ (ASV, Arch. Borghese 4188) before it was installed. The balteus crosses 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 elements of the drapery and the precise carving of the folds, which can still be appreciated despite the damage to the surface.

The bad state of preservation of the head, which is probably not ancient, prevents detailed analysis.

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