DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52594#0325
Greek Portraiture.
451a. (I. N. 2632). Hellenistic portrail. Head. M.
H. 0.39, the head alone 0.25. The vertex is restored in marble with
Roman style o£ hair. The back partly missing. The nose modern in
plaster. The lips badly damaged; less serious lesions of ears, chin and
cheeks. Acquired in 1913 from Rome, this head is shaped for insertion
into a statue.
In spite of the damage, this head retains much of its
individuality: a contemplative, gentle, rather weak nobility.
Style and hair treatment recall a bust in the Villa Borghese
(A. B. 331-32) and a lovely head from Rhodes in the British
Museum (Cat. Ill 1965 pl. XX. Hinks: Greek and Roman
Portrait-Sculpture pl. 17); evidently this group of heads also
acted as models for early Roman portraits like Nos. 558 and
559.
Til keg til Billedtavler pl. VIII. Michalowski: Portraits hcllenistiques et
romains de Delos p. 34 fig. 19. Fr. Poulsen: Probl. Rom. Ikon. p. 29.
452. (I. N. 1591). King Juba II of Mauretania. Head. M.
H. 0.45; from chin to vertex 0.30. The nose modern in marble.
Small bruises on face, hair and diadem. The head shaped for fitting
into a statue. Acquired in 1897 from the Palazzo Sciarra in Rome.
This is a man with a moderately high, accentuated fore-
head, heavy overhanging upper eyelids, flat eyes in small
orbits, fleshy cheeks and thick lips; and whereas the render-
ing of the hair is Hellenistic, the modelling otherwise indi-
cates early Augustine times. The royal diadem marks the per-
son as a ruler, and by means of coins and replicas, especially
from Cherchel, North Africa, the head can be identified as a
portrait of Juba II, who reigned over Numidia or Maure-
tania from 25 B. C. to 23 A. D., first as the friend and vassal
of Augustus, later of Tiberius. Juba spent his childhood in
Rome, whereby he was chailged, as Plutarch says (Caesar
55) from a Numidian barbarian into a cultivated man and
a historian held in much esteem. As a scientific writer, how-
ever, he seems to have been more of a visionary than an
observer.
Five definite portraits of Juba are known, and eight of his
son and successor Ptolemaius II. The Glyptotek’s bust is
justly regarded as the finest portrait of this king.
Billedtavler pl. XXXIII (on an ugly modern bust). Matz-Duhn I No. 1767.
A. B. text of 863-64. Fr. Poulsen, Symbolae Osloenses III 1925 p. 1 seqq. on
321
21
451a. (I. N. 2632). Hellenistic portrail. Head. M.
H. 0.39, the head alone 0.25. The vertex is restored in marble with
Roman style o£ hair. The back partly missing. The nose modern in
plaster. The lips badly damaged; less serious lesions of ears, chin and
cheeks. Acquired in 1913 from Rome, this head is shaped for insertion
into a statue.
In spite of the damage, this head retains much of its
individuality: a contemplative, gentle, rather weak nobility.
Style and hair treatment recall a bust in the Villa Borghese
(A. B. 331-32) and a lovely head from Rhodes in the British
Museum (Cat. Ill 1965 pl. XX. Hinks: Greek and Roman
Portrait-Sculpture pl. 17); evidently this group of heads also
acted as models for early Roman portraits like Nos. 558 and
559.
Til keg til Billedtavler pl. VIII. Michalowski: Portraits hcllenistiques et
romains de Delos p. 34 fig. 19. Fr. Poulsen: Probl. Rom. Ikon. p. 29.
452. (I. N. 1591). King Juba II of Mauretania. Head. M.
H. 0.45; from chin to vertex 0.30. The nose modern in marble.
Small bruises on face, hair and diadem. The head shaped for fitting
into a statue. Acquired in 1897 from the Palazzo Sciarra in Rome.
This is a man with a moderately high, accentuated fore-
head, heavy overhanging upper eyelids, flat eyes in small
orbits, fleshy cheeks and thick lips; and whereas the render-
ing of the hair is Hellenistic, the modelling otherwise indi-
cates early Augustine times. The royal diadem marks the per-
son as a ruler, and by means of coins and replicas, especially
from Cherchel, North Africa, the head can be identified as a
portrait of Juba II, who reigned over Numidia or Maure-
tania from 25 B. C. to 23 A. D., first as the friend and vassal
of Augustus, later of Tiberius. Juba spent his childhood in
Rome, whereby he was chailged, as Plutarch says (Caesar
55) from a Numidian barbarian into a cultivated man and
a historian held in much esteem. As a scientific writer, how-
ever, he seems to have been more of a visionary than an
observer.
Five definite portraits of Juba are known, and eight of his
son and successor Ptolemaius II. The Glyptotek’s bust is
justly regarded as the finest portrait of this king.
Billedtavler pl. XXXIII (on an ugly modern bust). Matz-Duhn I No. 1767.
A. B. text of 863-64. Fr. Poulsen, Symbolae Osloenses III 1925 p. 1 seqq. on
321
21