The Portraiture of Caligula

Octavianus, the later Roman Emperor Augustus.
End of the 1st century A.D.
Palazzo Massimo, Rome. (Photo courtesy Menesje)

Emperor Augustus, Montemartini (Photo coutesy Menesje)

Augustus BM- (photo courtesy Menesje)

Emperor Augustus, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (photo courtesy Menesje)

Augustus and Livia- Koln, Germany

Bust of Augustus (27 B.C. to A.D. 14) to right, wearing laurel wreath. (The glass imitates sardonyx: white for the portrait; green for the wreath; and blue for the background.) (Used under the MFA Educational Guidlines Only)

Convex oval intaglio set in modern gold ring. Augustus as Neptune mounting chariot drawn by four sea-horses over turbulent sea. Escorted by young Triton and dolphin. Inscribed in Greek above: POPIL ALBAN (Popilius Albanus). (Used under the MFA Educational Only Guidelines)

This is a fragment from a large relief, probably representing two or more figures. The head of the middle-aged man in profile to the right has been identified as Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (64 to 12 B.C.), admiral, lifelong friend, and son-in-law of the Emperor Augustus. Agrippa is probably shown between the years 23 and 21 or 17 to 13 B.C., when he controlled the eastern half of the empire. His deep-set eyes, straight forehead, and firm chin with heavy jaw are characteristics well known from coins bearing his portrait.

Part of the original top of the slab is preserved; the top and rear surfaces were left rough. The area around the face on the front surface was finished with a claw chisel, as was done with certain Greco-Roman copies of famous statues produced in Athenian ateliers. The background has been broken irregularly on the other three edges, most radically behind the head and below the chin. The rim of the ear is broken, and the face has suffered minor nicks. A rich yellow patina now covers the worked surfaces. (Used under MFA educational only guidelines)

A marble bust with 18th century restorations; probably inserted into a full length draped statue. It perhaps was created for a private villa at Ariccia, near Rome, where it was found. This is a posthumous portrait of Augustus with many features that suggest that it dates to the late 30s or 40s A.D., although the rendering of the hair general expression are more suggestive of a second century date. The portrait is carved out of Lychnites marble from the Greek island of Paros, one of the most prestigious and expensive marbles in antiquity.

This portrait of the Emperor Augustus (27 B.C.-14 A.D.) shows curly locks of hair, no wrinkles, softened bone structure; these features indicate is an idealized image influenced by Greek statues of athletes and athletic gods. (Used under MFA educational Guidelines)

The tip of the nose has been restored; the edges of the ears are chipped; and the surface is somewhat pitted, cracked, and worn, but not unpleasingly so.
In a a letter to the museum, R. Delbrueck first identified the subject as Augustus, "a replica of the bronze bust in the Vatican Library." This seems to have been accepted by L.D. Caskey in his notes for a revision of the 1925 catalogue. He was never really satisfied with the thought that the portrait might be Caius Caesar (Caligula, A.D. 37-41).
As Mr. Caskey pointed out in his catalogue, the form of the bust is Julio-Claudian. The provenance indicated the piece was very likely in the Rome area in antiquity. Presumably the material was selected to give the portrait the appearance of antiqued bronze. Style gives no indication whether the bust was carved in Egypt and brought to ancient Rome or made in Italy from an imported block of stone, as there is nothing Egyptian about the presentation. The carving is of good, but not exceptional, Julio-Claudian quality, of the type found in funerary portraits of private persons from the Rome area about the middle of the first century A.D. (Used under MFA Educational Only Guidelines)

Heigth x width x depth: 32.5 x 21.5 x 16.5 cm (12 13/16 x 8 7/16 x 6 1/2 in.)
Limestone

The head, in profile to the left, is from a high relief. The emperor is crowned with a laurel wreath, and he probably wore an elaborately draped toga. He may well have been shown participating in a civic ceremony such as a sacrifice in the presence of other officials and figures of the gods. This is the only surviving portrait of Augustus in Cypriote limestone, and it follows Roman types and fashions more fully than most other Cypriote limestone portraits.
The nose is broken off, as is the back of the relief from cheek to neck. The lower left side of the neck is also broken away. The surfaces are slightly crusty but generally good, and fresh, being gray-white in color.

Gift of Jerome M. Eisenberg and Fred M. Richman, 1971
Accession number: 1971.325

Provenance/Ownership History: By 1971: Jerome M. Eisenberg and Frederick Richman Collections (said to be from the Salamis region and from an old American collection [Cesnola?]); gift of Jerome M. Eisenberg and Frederick Richman to MFA, September 15, 1971 (EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY)

Roman, Early Imperial Period, early 1st century A.D.

Height x length (of face): 31 x 20 cm (12 3/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
Marble, fine-grained Italian

This portrait of Rome's first emperor (27 B.C.-A.D. 14) belongs to a group sometimes known as the Forbes type. This type is more classicizing than earlier portraits of Augustus, perhaps because he wished to present himself as a bringer of stability and calm after a period of civil war. The type is thought by some scholars to have been created in 29 B.C. on the occasion of Augustus' triple triumph, a celebration of his victories in Illyria, Egypt, and Actium (over Marc Antony and Cleopatra). The MFA's version of the type was probably inserted into a statue of Augustus wearing a toga and has been dated to the early first century A.D. on the basis of the looser treatment of the locks of hair and the lack of individualized strands of hair.

A large part of the left side of the crown of the head has been lost by an oblique fracture; there is a break at the base of the neck. The end of the nose is missing; both ears have been injured; and there is some incrustation on the surfaces of the face.

Provenance/Ownership History: By date unknown: Edward Waldo Forbes Collection; gift of Edward Waldo Forbes to MFA, December 1, 1906
(educational use Only)

Augustus from the Louvre- Educational purposes only

Height: 43.3 cm (17 1/16 in.); length (of face): 20 cm (7 7/8 in.)
Marble from the Lychnites quarries on the Greek island of Paros

Provenance/Ownership History: By 18th century: found at Ariccia, near Rome, between 1787 and 1796; by 1845: collection of Cardinal Despuig, Archbishop of Valencia, at Raxa, near Palma, island of Majorca; 1899: acquired from Lorenzo Rossello y Rosselli by E. P. Warren; purchased by MFA from E. P. Warren, 1899, for $ 32,500.00 (this is the total price for MFA 99.338-99.542) (EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY)

The block is broken at both ends and is preserved in two pieces, fastened together. It has suffered severely from fire; the surface is discolored and crackled, and bits of the figures and of the moldings have flaked off.
The center of this frieze from the interior of a small temple or funerary structure is occupied by the figure of a priestess, in girt chiton and ample himation pulled up as a veil, making a sacrifice at a garlanded rectangular altar.
Part of the body of a woman holding a covered tray is visible at the extreme left. Between, a victimarius with an axe leads a reluctant goat toward the altar. At the right are a woman with a tray of fruits and a camillus or youth with an oinochoe and a phiale (?) in each hand. The top element of the lower moldings forms the groundline.
The scene has been treated in the crisp, careful style of early Roman imperial architectural sculpture on structures of small scale. It is a sacrifice to Dionysos. While considerable late Roman Republican naturalism is used for the two male attendants, the priestess(es) and her female companion(s) are handled in poses and styles borrowed from Neo-Attic art as encouraged in Rome under Augustus. (Used under MFA guideline educational only)

The ensemble comes from a statue of the triple-bodied Hekate, a central-Greek divinity with Underworld connotations, a being sometimes thought of as a manifestation of Artemis as goddess of the night and the crossroads. The work is Archaistic in that it represents an attempt by a sculptor working about the time of Augustus (27 B.C. - A.D. 14), or slightly later, to create a statue with reminiscences of Athenian style in the generation before the Persian Wars, that is, around 520 B.C. The hair is far from Archaic, being made modern in the late Hellenistic sense. The crown rising between the three heads may recall the headdress of a Hekate of the fifth century B.C. for the sculptor Alkamenes among others created such images in Athens and other parts of Greece.
The faces are damaged and worn, as is the top of the polos; otherwise, the surfaces are roughly as carved. (Used under the MFA Educational Only Guidleines)

Portrait of the Emperor Augustus
Roman Provincial, Early Imperial Period, Late 1st century B.C.–early 1st century A.D.

Heigth x width x depth: 32.5 x 21.5 x 16.5 cm (12 13/16 x 8 7/16 x 6 1/2 in.)
Limestone