19 × 26 cm. Vatican Museums, Vatican City.
Julius Caesar began his political leadership as the head of the traditionally Republican government of Rome, but ended it as a murdered dictator. Caesar had taken control over the vast empire of Rome, eschewing the practice of sharing power with the Senate. He was both revered for his strong leadership and resented for his tyranny. It was that resentment that led to his assassination on the fifth of March, 44 B.C.E. This portrait expresses not only Caesar’s likeness, but also his character. We sense his strength, intelligence and nobility. The bust follows the Republican tradition of veristic portraiture.
98. Augustus as Pontifex Maximus (High Priest), Via Labicana, Rome, Roman, Imperial style, after 12 B.C.E. Marble, height: 200 cm. Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.
99. Portrait of Octavian, Roman, Imperial style, 35–29 B.C.E. Marble, height: 74 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome.
Octavian, better known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, inherited the title of emperor after Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C.E. He later joined forces with the infamous Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in a military dictatorship also known as the Second Triumvirate. During this period, he ruled Rome and many of its provinces. The group was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its rulers. Octavian later completely restored the outward façade of the Roman Republic by investing the power in the Roman Senate and no longer ruling Rome as a emperorship, which in the end allotted him the name “Augustus”, meaning “The Revered One.”
100. Augustus of Prima Porta, Villa ad Gallinas which belonged to Livia, Rome, 14 C.E. copy of a Roman bronze, Imperial style, 20 B.C.E. Marble, height: 204 cm. Vatican Museums, Vatican City.
Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, transformed the way art and image were used by the Romans. He rejected the “veristic” style of Roman portraiture, preferring instead to emulate the High Classical style of fifth-century Greece. In this portrait, found at the villa of his wife Livia at Prima Porta, Augustus is shown in a pose that directly quotes Polykleitos’ Doryphoros, the best-known statue of the fifth century. In doing so, Augustus called upon all the associations the High Classical period carried: empire and power, but also democracy. Augustus was trying to appease those who might resent his absolute rule and the end of the Republic. He was at once advertising his strength, and also his role as a fair, democratic leader who would represent the senate and the people of Rome.
101. Heracles (detail of the Abduction of Dejanire), Sacellum des Augustales, Herculaneum, Roman, Fourth Pompeian style (20–79 C.E.). Fresco. In situ.
102. Nymph, detail of a scene depicting the death of Icarus, Pompeii, Imperial Villa, Room A, Roman, Fourth Pompeian style (20–79 C.E.), 62–79 C.E. Fresco. In situ.
103. Portrait of Gaius Julius Caesar or The Green Cesar, Roman Egypt, beginning of the 1st century C.E. Basanite (marmoreal eyes inlays are modern), height: 41 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Altes Museum, Antikensammlung, Berlin.
104. Portrait Head of a Young Man, Roman, Imperial style, middle of the 1st century C.E. Marble, height: 28 cm. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
105. Head of a Colossal Statue of Augustus, Roman, Imperial style, posthumous portrait, 41–54 C.E. Marble. Vatican Museums, Chiaramonti Museum, Vatican City.
106. Relief from the Tomb of a Family of Roman Freed Men and Women, Roman, 1st Century C.E. Marble, 74 × 185 × 30 cm. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
107. Colossal Head of Tiberius, Veii, Roman, Imperial style, posthumous portrait, 41–54 C.E. Marble. Vatican Museums, Museum Chiaramonti, Vatican City.
108. Mummy Portrait of a Young Man, Hawara, Egypt, Roman, c. 70-12 °C.E. Encaustic on cedar wood, 38.3 × 22.8 cm. The British Museum, London.
109. Mummy Portrait of a Woman, Hawara, Egypt, Roman, c. 55–7 °C.E. Encaustic on cedar wood, 41.6 × 21.5 cm. The British Museum, London.
110. The Child, Fayum, c. 1st-2nd century C.E. Encaustic on wood, 35.5 × 16.5 cm. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
111. Female Theatre Mask, Casa del Bracciale d’Oro, Pompeii, Roman, Third Pompeian style, before 6 °C.E. Fresco. In situ.
The murals discovered in the ancient cities around the Bay of Naples, notably Pompeii and Herculaneum, were found after extensive excavations in the eighteenth century by the architect Domenico Fontana. Among the artefacts found were the many surviving frescoes that are extremely fine examples of the late Second Style, the most renowned style in Roman wall painting. Many of these murals often included different visual ambiguities to tease the viewer, vivid expressions and depth conveyed by shadows. There are architectural details as well that are painted to resemble real ones such as rusticated masonry, pillars and columns that cast shadows into the viewer’s space.
112. Bust of Emperor Nero, Roman, 54–68 C.E. (left side of the face), 17th century (right side of the face and bust). Marble, height: 66 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome.
113. Statuette of Asklepios, small Roman copy of a life-sized Hellenistic model, Roman, Imperial style, c. 100–15 °C.E. Bronze, height: 16.5 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
114. Fonseca Bust, Roman, beginning of the 2nd century C.E. Marble, height: 63 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome.
115. Bust of a Poetess, also called “Sabine Richelieu” (collection of the cardinal), Roman, c. 120–13 °C.E. Marble, height: 66 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
116. Bust of Hadrian, Roman, Imperial style, c. 117–138 C.E. Marble. Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.
Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus), Roman emperor 117–138 B.C.E., was born on January 24, 76 C.E. at Italica in Hispania Bactica (according to others, at Rome), where his ancestors, originally from Hadria in Picenum, had been settled since the time of the Scipios. At the age of fifteen he began a military career, and he quickly moved up the ranks, thanks to his closeness with Trajan, the current emperor, who named Hadrian his successor just before his death.
He was without doubt one of the most capable emperors who ever occupied the throne, and devoted his great and varied talents to the interests of the state. One of his chief objects was the abolition of distinctions between the provinces and the mother country, finally carried out by Caracalla, while at the same time he did not neglect reforms that were urgently called for in Italy. Provincial governors were kept under strict supervision; extortion was practically unheard
