DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55337#0169
[ 8i ]
COLOSSAL HEAD OF HADRIAN’S AGE. (Rossie Priory.)
[Head and neck alone ancient. Marble. Height of bust o-8o, of
head 0-36. Head very much restored in marble by no less a person
than Thorwaldsen; nose, left side of forehead, left brow, left cheek
to near ear, left ear, chin, and part of lower lip modern. Right side
of face ancient, with old and good weathering ; but forehead hair
somewhat damaged. Pupils not drilled, but front hair deeply drilled.
Rough surface of crown and a hole over left ear show that the head
wore metal-wreath.]
Both the treatment of the hair and the short cropped beard
point to Hadrian’s age, as do the absence of drilled pupils and the
nervous expression of the face. In the treatment of hair and beard
the head may be most closely approximated to the so-called ‘ Clodius
Albinus ’, which in reality, as the shape of the bust in the Capitoline
replica shows, is of Hadrian’s period and, since there are three certain
replicas, must represent a famous man of this age.1 Michaelis and
Bernoulli conjecture that Caracalla is represented in this Rossie head,
but this is quite out of the question. It is, as the dimensions show,
a well-known and highly respected man of Hadrian’s age, but the
replicas are not known to me.
(Lord Kinnaird, Rossie Priory, no. 20, ‘ Nero ’ ; Michaelis, p. 650,
no. 20 ; Bernoulli, Rom. Ikon. ii. 1, p. 399.)
1 Bernoulli, Rom. Ikon. ii. 3, p. 20 and pl. IX ; Stuart Jones, Museo Capitolino,
pl. 46, no. 49 (p. 202).
2580
M
COLOSSAL HEAD OF HADRIAN’S AGE. (Rossie Priory.)
[Head and neck alone ancient. Marble. Height of bust o-8o, of
head 0-36. Head very much restored in marble by no less a person
than Thorwaldsen; nose, left side of forehead, left brow, left cheek
to near ear, left ear, chin, and part of lower lip modern. Right side
of face ancient, with old and good weathering ; but forehead hair
somewhat damaged. Pupils not drilled, but front hair deeply drilled.
Rough surface of crown and a hole over left ear show that the head
wore metal-wreath.]
Both the treatment of the hair and the short cropped beard
point to Hadrian’s age, as do the absence of drilled pupils and the
nervous expression of the face. In the treatment of hair and beard
the head may be most closely approximated to the so-called ‘ Clodius
Albinus ’, which in reality, as the shape of the bust in the Capitoline
replica shows, is of Hadrian’s period and, since there are three certain
replicas, must represent a famous man of this age.1 Michaelis and
Bernoulli conjecture that Caracalla is represented in this Rossie head,
but this is quite out of the question. It is, as the dimensions show,
a well-known and highly respected man of Hadrian’s age, but the
replicas are not known to me.
(Lord Kinnaird, Rossie Priory, no. 20, ‘ Nero ’ ; Michaelis, p. 650,
no. 20 ; Bernoulli, Rom. Ikon. ii. 1, p. 399.)
1 Bernoulli, Rom. Ikon. ii. 3, p. 20 and pl. IX ; Stuart Jones, Museo Capitolino,
pl. 46, no. 49 (p. 202).
2580
M