DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15101#0093
PLATE XXVIII.
BUST OF A BARBARIAN CAPTIVE.
An unknown terminal bust, with the. hair dishevelled, and falling
in long tresses on each side of the neck, representing a per-
sonage in the prime of youth, though with no indications of
beard. It has been usually supposed to exhibit the pourtrait of a
captive barbarian; the long hair and full face being considered
the type of women of German descent. Their general character
may be readily recognized from the figures preserved on the
Antonine column at Rome, where the German prisoners appear
with long, perfectly-unadorned and dishevelled hair. Indeed, it is
not impossible that this very head may have been taken originally
from some triumphal arch. There is a statue in the Loggia di
Lanci at Florence, which has been attributed by Goettling,(1)
in a learned work on the subject, to Theusenilda, the mother of
Arminius: with the head of that statue this head exhibits some
analogy. In the Museum Marbles(2) there is published a head,
attributed in that work to Decebalus or Arminius, on which the
treatment of the hair has some resemblance to that of this head.
This bust was presented to the Museum by the Hon. Mrs. Damer,
but there is no ground for supposing it part of a terminal statue,
as is suggested by her restoration.
The head only is antique, and has been much restored. The
nose is modern, as are also parts of the forehead above the right
and left eye, the back part of the right side of the head, and. the
curls of the hair which fall upon the neck. It is in Parian marble,
and 14^ inches high.
1 Goettling C. W., Thusnelda Arminius Gemahlin, fol., 1843, Jena. Bull, dell'
Institute, 1813, p. 18. Monum. iii. 1841. PI. 28.
2 Pt. iii. PL 6.
BUST OF A BARBARIAN CAPTIVE.
An unknown terminal bust, with the. hair dishevelled, and falling
in long tresses on each side of the neck, representing a per-
sonage in the prime of youth, though with no indications of
beard. It has been usually supposed to exhibit the pourtrait of a
captive barbarian; the long hair and full face being considered
the type of women of German descent. Their general character
may be readily recognized from the figures preserved on the
Antonine column at Rome, where the German prisoners appear
with long, perfectly-unadorned and dishevelled hair. Indeed, it is
not impossible that this very head may have been taken originally
from some triumphal arch. There is a statue in the Loggia di
Lanci at Florence, which has been attributed by Goettling,(1)
in a learned work on the subject, to Theusenilda, the mother of
Arminius: with the head of that statue this head exhibits some
analogy. In the Museum Marbles(2) there is published a head,
attributed in that work to Decebalus or Arminius, on which the
treatment of the hair has some resemblance to that of this head.
This bust was presented to the Museum by the Hon. Mrs. Damer,
but there is no ground for supposing it part of a terminal statue,
as is suggested by her restoration.
The head only is antique, and has been much restored. The
nose is modern, as are also parts of the forehead above the right
and left eye, the back part of the right side of the head, and. the
curls of the hair which fall upon the neck. It is in Parian marble,
and 14^ inches high.
1 Goettling C. W., Thusnelda Arminius Gemahlin, fol., 1843, Jena. Bull, dell'
Institute, 1813, p. 18. Monum. iii. 1841. PI. 28.
2 Pt. iii. PL 6.