Portrait of a Julio-Claudian Prince, on a modern bust

Roman art

This portrait, set on a modern bust, is mentioned in the Palazzina Borghese for the first time in 1828, as one of the works selected to be restored by the sculptor Massimiliano Laboureur. The figure wears an absorbed expression, emphasised by deep nasolabial furrows and a wrinkled brow. His hair is arranged in dense, wavy locks, with a short fringe that extends and expands at the temples. This hairstyle is typical of the portraiture of Julio-Claudian princes, in particular Germanicus. The sculpture, which is restored, is datable to the early first century CE.

Object details

Commentary

This male portrait is set on a modern cuirassed bust. The figure is wearing a mantle called a paludamentum, which is fastened with a circular fibula over the right shoulder. We can make out the fringed folds of the right shoulder of the cuirass and the hem of the tunic can be glimpsed beneath it. The head is in the shape of an elongated oval and slightly turned to the left. The figure’s clean-shaven face wears a tense, concentrated expression, emphasised by the slightly furrowed brow beneath the broad, square forehead, the protruding cheekbones and the deep lines to the sides of the nose. His thin eyebrows are slightly turned downward, the tear duct of his smooth eyes was defined with a drill, and he has heavy eyelids. He has a small, closed mouth with deep, slightly downturned corners. His hair is arranged in wavy locks that start from a whorl at the top of his head and come down over his forehead in a short, regular fringe, lengthening in front of the ears.

The style of the fringe, worn in dense contiguous locks that diverge above the right eye and puff out slightly at the temples, was generically inspired by the portraiture of Julio-Claudian princes. In particular, the sculpture seems to share similarities with the known iconography of Germanicus, as he appears in a portrait found in Gabii and now in the Louvre (Ma 1238: Martinez 2004, p. 88, no. 0131) and one in the Glyptotek, Copenhagen (Johansen 1995, II, pp. 128–129, no. 52). The Borghese portrait, the surface of which was heavily reworked with a drill, is datable to the early first century CE.

The Borghese bust is mentioned in a letter sent by Minister Giuseppe Gozzani to Prince Camillo Borghese in 1828, where it is listed among the works chosen to be restored by the sculptor Massimiliano Laboureur. The sculpture, which was subsequently placed in Room VIII, was described as a ‘Testa di Germanico’ (Head of Germanicus) and judged ‘probabilmente moderna’ (‘probably modern’; Moreno, Sforzini, 1897, p. 361). In 1841, Nibby labelled it a ‘busto incognito’ (‘unknown bust’; p. 924, no. 12). Calza considers it to be heavily restored and dates it to the Julio-Claudian period (p. 14, no. 119).

Giulia Ciccarello