The head has been torn off an over life-size relief carved in A. D. 69-The aging general, briefly raised to the purple, is depicted with all the signs of his years.
33. The emperor Vitellius
The realistically depicted face of the overweight pretender was intentionally mutilated after his assassination in 69.
52 This over life-size profile has been violently removed from a relief. The fact that there was originally a bronze crown fixed at the nape and over the forehead indicates an emperor, and the fact that it was detached from a major offical relief in haste points to an abrupt change on the throne of Rome. The style points to a date early in the second half of the first century A. D. The features are too old for Nero and entirely different from those of Vespasian. We must be then in the year 69, the year of three emperors, whose iconography is still difficult to unravel. This man must be over sixty years old; and of the three possibilities, only Galba (c. 3 B. C.-A. D. 69) was this age when proclaimed emperor by his troops in Spain. If the identification is accepted (and there is some correspondence with the iconography on coins of this short-ruled emperor), then the image must have been carved by a major sculptor, but in a hurry, in Asia Minor where Galba was at first accepted and then later rejected in favor of other pretenders. It is force, not venerability, that marks the features of this bold, old man. The appearance he issues is that of a backward-looking Republican with the old virtues, an image continued still more powerfully in the portraits of Vespasian.
33 The last emperor from the trio of 69, Vitellius (15-69) is as difficult to identify as the others, and this sculpture presents the additional obstacle that it was intentionally mutilated, perhaps because of the official condemnation of Vitellius’s short reign. The carving is superb, however, and what remains stands close comparison to the gargantuan head of Vitellius in Copenhagen. Our sculptor muted his depiction, but the realism remains pitiless. There is nothing imperial in the man, nor is there any of the rude but tough earthiness which would later enhance the ugly face of Vespasian. Even the sympathy we could feel for our uncouth provincial (no. 9) is not here. All the sculptor clearly states is the timeless revelation that Vitellius overindulged in food and drink.
34. Unfinished head of the emperor Domitian (81-96)
From Asia Minor, the portrait represents the cruel emperor as dominus et deus. It was left incomplete when the final conspiracy against him succeeded in 96. It illustrates the work procedure of first century A. D. Roman sculptors.
34 The last emperor of the Flavian dynasty, Domitian (81-96) appears in the last version of his imperial iconography: dominus et deus. The surprising fact is that both the individual likeness and the self-divinization are clear even in the roughed-out initial carving of this unfinished head. The sculptor must have been competent, and he worked in the same province—Asia Minor—as the hack responsible for the amorphous dropsical Nero (no. 30). The efficient impeachment of Domitian (he was assassinated in A. D. 96) probably halted the chisel, providing the opportunity for us today to catch the sculptor at work.
There are basically two approaches to a marble block. Michelangelo’s method, following a tradition inaugurated already in Hellenistic times (although Michelangelo didn’t know this), characterizes well the more recent one: the sculpture is perceived already in the block and the sculptor labors to bring it to light. The older, Greek approach maintained by this portrait is much less subtle and more direct: the stone is cut away from the four sides to shape the desired volumes. Of course, for an imperial portrait like Domitian’s there was a model, and the three-point transposition technique (see also p. 00) is the very first means mastered by any stonecutter. The first tool used for the rough cutting of this head was the simple point or pick, of which traces can be seen especially on the back of the head. Next used was the claw chisel that left abundant traces all over the face. The sculptor proceeded cautiously: details, like ears, which could easily be broken were carefully protected, half submerged in the stone. It is clear that the head was intended for insertion into a standard body used for imperial effigies like the following headless cuirassed torso (no. 35).
35 This cuirass statue is a good representative of a standard imperial iconographic type, representing the emperor as imperator, victorious commander of the Roman army. As was frequently the case, our example was made to have a portrait head inserted. The whole statue stood with the weight on its left leg, the right foot a little to the side and the right arm raised in a gesture oladlocutio (addressing the troops). The emperor is in cuirass with the paludamentum, purple general’s cloak, over the left shoulder and forearm, the sword worn on a baldric. The cuirass is without relief, although roughly polished for painting, and on the preserved and visible left shoulder flap is the lower half of Jupiter Fulmen’s thunderbolt. The three metal side hinges of the cuirass are precisely indicated where they could be seen on the right side but hidden and neglected on the left. The windswept appearance of the leather straps protecting the hips and abdomen below the cuirass is typical of Flavian impressionism.
35. Torso of a cuirass statue of an emperor
The originally inserted head probably represented Domitian. Late first century A. D.
World History
