Poulsen, Frederik: Greek and Roman portraits in English country houses (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923)

[94]

8o
ROMAN BUST. (Sir John Soane’s Museum.)
[Marble. Total height 0-50, of head 0-23. Whole surface
covered by weathering ; parts of nose, breast, and left shoulder
broken off.]
The complete destruction renders a definite dating impossible,
but the slight remains of drilling of the pupils, the shape of the
bust, and the beardlessness of the head suggest the time of Hadrian.
The locks of hair are quite worn away and give no satisfactory datum.
I have therefore thought it better to put this bust together with the
others from the same collection which belong to the Antonine age,
and illustrate English provincial sculpture under the Empire, all
executed in poor, coarse-grained marble. In spite of destruction,
remains are still preserved of the energetic expression of the head, the
strong arched brows, and the defiant chin. These and the following
busts in the Soane Collection were overlooked by Michaelis.
81
BUST OF A YOUNG MAN. (Sir John Soane’s Museum.)
[Marble. Total height 0-65, of head 0-25. Both bust and base
ancient. Nose and part of left shoulder broken off. In eyes remains
of pupil-drilling. This in conjunction with high bust shows that
earliest possible dating is in Hadrian’s age. But fall of hair suggests
rather the age of the Antonines.1]
This is a young man with a big mouth and pendulous lower lip ;
the hair is long and soft. The head is boldly raised and inclined to
the right shoulder. Both this and the other busts wear chiton, and
over it himation, not toga.2
1 Arndt-Amelung, 1018. Arndt-Bruck- Athens, no. 579.
mann, 800 (‘ Neon ’ in Madrid). Head in 2 Cf. Ny Carlsberg, 704, where, however,
the magazine of the National Museum at there is no chiton under the himation.