One day before World War II, J. Paul Getty was walking through the Vatican Museum in Rome and paused in a little-frequented gallery. He told the story later of how he was surprised to see a Roman portrait that looked uncannily like W. G. Skelly, founder and president of Skelly Oil, his friend and rival in the oil business. It is no wonder that in his collecting of ancient art, which Mr. Getty began at this time, Roman portraits were among his first acquisitions, and throughout his buying years an expressively individual Roman character could often seduce him into a purchase.
Mr. Getty was not the only one to feel this way. In her introduction to the collection of Roman portraits in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gisela M. A. Richter noted that many venerable Roman Republicans looked to her like successful American businessmen. This spiritual observation does not hold up under deeper analysis, but it may explain well one of the fascinations which Roman portraits have for modern Americans. Another reason for their popularity is that they provide human likenesses for the familiar great names of history, from Caesar to Costantine. And due to the response of the museum’s founder, Mr. Getty’s Romans now number nearly one hundred examples, showing a large spectrum of personalities, art, times, and evolution, a mirror of the past in which we can often see ourselves.
The present publication introduces all of the one hundred portraits in the Getty collection today, with an emphasis on the seventy-odd pieces which are actually visiting the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa in 1981. Tulsa is a city Mr. Getty always remembered with a soft spot in his heart, for it was there that he took his first steps in the oil business.
The thanks of the authors are due to the trustees of the J. Paul Getty Museum who authorized this enterprise and to all friends who in many different ways helped with the realization of the show and of the catalogue. The text was read by Faya Causey Frel, and much valued assistance was rendered by Katherine Kiefer and Lucinda Costin.
J. F.
Figure 1. Bronze statue, called a ruler, but representing a victorious Roman general in the Hellenistic tradition. Beginning of the first century B. C. Rome, Museo Na-zionale.
World History
