DUBIA

The portrait may be ancient, but identification is difficuit, partly because of modern recutting of the eyes.

Figure 18. Bronze sestertius of Philip the Arab. Getty Museum, 79.Al.26.

94  What a jewel! And what a difficulty! The shape and presentation are proper for a model to be used by a goldsmith working a miniature bust of an emperor in repousse—such as a gold Septimius Severus found In Thrace. While the Identification with Philip the Arab (244-249) seems to be sufficiently evident in comparison with his coin portraits (fig, 18), the authenticity of the piece remains under discussion. No direct parallel can be quoted, and the surface, especially under magnification, produces a rather impressionist, eighteenth-century Baroque effect. There is a further disquieting circumstance: the two extant portraits of Philip in the Hermitage and the Vatican were both discovered in the later eighteenth century. Both passed through the workshop of the great restorer and imitator of antiquity Batolomeo Cavaceppi, and one is rightly hesitant about the products—life-size, miniatures, gems—of his workshop. But the artistic quality of the small bust Is superb and finally tips the balance towards a favorable appreciation.

95  This head of a bearded man offers a problem, one of dating if not authenticity. The possibility of an intentional fake can be discounted. The surface is clearly older than one and a half centuries. Anyhow, the art is incompatible with the neoclassical style of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The only clearly modern detail is the plastic indication of the pupils, and that must be a later addition. The rendering of the hair resembles the works of the late first century A. D., but the psychology of the man is later; it is intellectual with some emotional weight from older Roman values. A moderate visionary, one could say, and this points rather to the later third century. A sharp cylindrical hole in both ears may have been destined to hold a metal wreath. This technique is common in imitations of antiquity but rather rare in genuine ancient heads (although see no, 32). With some regret, since the face is not without its attractions, one feels obliged to leave the piece unclassified.