DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5988#0089
32
PORTRAIT OF ROMAN BOY
H. (total) -41 m.; head and neck -22 m; bust -ig m.
marble; polished in the Renaissance.
Plate XXXVII
Restored: lower half of nose; both ears. Luna
Admirable portrait of a boy of the mid-third century—very probably of Gordian III. The
strands of hair are plastic but the dividing grooves indicated by sharp strokes of the chisel;
forehead and skull almost abnormally big; eyes well open with segment-shaped pupils,
two dots indicating the light in the iris; what remains of the nose show that it was flattened
at the root as in childhood; the mouth is firm, the cheeks and chin well rounded; the body
carefully modelled. Shape characteristic of third century, when the bust shape was aban-
doned, and an attempt made to present portraits as half-figures or as fragments of a whole
statue. Very good Roman work.
For portraits of the 'boy Emperor' at a somewhat older age, see Poulsen: Portraits in English
Country Houses, 1923, p. 108, PI. 106.
From the Henriette Hertz Collection, Rome.
33 PORTRAIT OF AN ELDERLY ROMAN Plate XXXVII
H. excluding base, -68 m. Restored: Nose from about one inch below root; patches on chin and neck.
The head is let into a heavy draped bust which does not belong to it.
A characteristic example of Roman portrait art of the late third century A. D. It recalls
the well-known head in the Capitol (Stanza delle Colombe; see my Roman Sculpture,
PI. CXXVII), with which it has many traits in common, so much so that the person
portrayed might be the same, represented at a more advanced age by another hand. How-
ever, the hair in the Mond head does not lie so close to the skull; the eye is more open, but
its glance less lively, with nothing of the sly irony of the Capitoline head; the tear gland is
fuller, the double chin heavier, but the cut of the hair on the forehead is the same, both
heads resembling in this respect the portraits of Philip the Arabian.48
From the Collection of the late Sir Charles Robinson, OB.
^f£*id-biceps
4
:4>
M standing ate
> lio^ head
*t The skin parti
^ofdivnntyora
J* Hellenistic or
Second and third ce
!,ancult of Heracles v
: of the dead, and
::ertheaccomplishme
"tf Heracles, in the
^graves (Furtwangle
res (but with vary
ieodei Conservatoi
ion of the late Sir
;L\RDED HEAD OF
k Base and inscripl
.mb from a statuette
:silvanus
36
iH '20 m. Reston
-"; irifling patches on the o
^little head wears tl
^rsfrom the usual
:R°scher, col. 1825 ff
"head belonged prob
::ldnot only as god of
Conine period.
J^Ue Hertz Collec
PORTRAIT OF ROMAN BOY
H. (total) -41 m.; head and neck -22 m; bust -ig m.
marble; polished in the Renaissance.
Plate XXXVII
Restored: lower half of nose; both ears. Luna
Admirable portrait of a boy of the mid-third century—very probably of Gordian III. The
strands of hair are plastic but the dividing grooves indicated by sharp strokes of the chisel;
forehead and skull almost abnormally big; eyes well open with segment-shaped pupils,
two dots indicating the light in the iris; what remains of the nose show that it was flattened
at the root as in childhood; the mouth is firm, the cheeks and chin well rounded; the body
carefully modelled. Shape characteristic of third century, when the bust shape was aban-
doned, and an attempt made to present portraits as half-figures or as fragments of a whole
statue. Very good Roman work.
For portraits of the 'boy Emperor' at a somewhat older age, see Poulsen: Portraits in English
Country Houses, 1923, p. 108, PI. 106.
From the Henriette Hertz Collection, Rome.
33 PORTRAIT OF AN ELDERLY ROMAN Plate XXXVII
H. excluding base, -68 m. Restored: Nose from about one inch below root; patches on chin and neck.
The head is let into a heavy draped bust which does not belong to it.
A characteristic example of Roman portrait art of the late third century A. D. It recalls
the well-known head in the Capitol (Stanza delle Colombe; see my Roman Sculpture,
PI. CXXVII), with which it has many traits in common, so much so that the person
portrayed might be the same, represented at a more advanced age by another hand. How-
ever, the hair in the Mond head does not lie so close to the skull; the eye is more open, but
its glance less lively, with nothing of the sly irony of the Capitoline head; the tear gland is
fuller, the double chin heavier, but the cut of the hair on the forehead is the same, both
heads resembling in this respect the portraits of Philip the Arabian.48
From the Collection of the late Sir Charles Robinson, OB.
^f£*id-biceps
4
:4>
M standing ate
> lio^ head
*t The skin parti
^ofdivnntyora
J* Hellenistic or
Second and third ce
!,ancult of Heracles v
: of the dead, and
::ertheaccomplishme
"tf Heracles, in the
^graves (Furtwangle
res (but with vary
ieodei Conservatoi
ion of the late Sir
;L\RDED HEAD OF
k Base and inscripl
.mb from a statuette
:silvanus
36
iH '20 m. Reston
-"; irifling patches on the o
^little head wears tl
^rsfrom the usual
:R°scher, col. 1825 ff
"head belonged prob
::ldnot only as god of
Conine period.
J^Ue Hertz Collec