Roman Youth, possibly Emperor Severus Alexander

CultureRoman

Date220-230 C.E.

MediumMarble

DimensionsOverall: 12 1/4 × 8 × 8 1/4 inches (31.12 × 20.32 × 20.96 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number45-66

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Ancient Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Discovery and Deceit: Archaeology and the Forger's Craft, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 3-January 5, 1996-1997.

From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, September 16, 2000-January 7, 2001; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, January 31-March 25, 2001, no. 52.

Gallery Label

A close look at this portrait reveals several peculiarities. The long hair on the crown of the head contrasts with the otherwise short-cropped hair. The neck is disproportionately wide, and deep channels in the sideburns seem out of place. The head was carved from an earlier portrait. This explains the discrepancies. The large neck and the hair of the crown belonged to the original sculpture. The peculiar channels in the sideburns were the canals of the original ears. The size of the neck shows that the original was over life-size and suitable for recarving a life-size portrait. The nose was made separately and attached. This may be a portrait of the Roman emperor Severus Alexander (A.D. 222–235), and it was recarved from a portrait of Elegabulus, the emperor who ruled directly before him. Elegabulus ruled so incompetently that after his assassination portraits of him were banned. Here, rather than destroying a perfectly good piece of marble, the Roman artist carved away Elegabulus’s features to make those of the new emperor.

Published References

Cornelius Vermeule,“Ten Greek and Roman Portraits in Kansas City,” Apollo 99, no. 147 (May 1974): 317-18, no. 8, fig. 8.

Marianne Bergmann, Studien zum römischen Porträt des 3. Jahrhunderts n. Chr., Antiquitas 3, Rehe 3, Abhandlungen zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte, zur klassischen und provinzal-römischen Archäologie und zur Geschichte des Altertums, Bd. 18 (Bonn: Rudolf Habelt Verlag GmbH, 1977), 10-11n22, 201.

Eric Varner, From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture, exh. cat. (Atlanta, GA: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2000), 200-03, no. 52.

Eric Varner, “Tyranny and Transformation: Roman Imperial Portraits,” Minerva 11, no. 6 (2000): 49, fig.16.

Erich Varner, Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae, and Roman Imperial Portraiture, Monumenta Graeca et Romana 10 (Brill: Leiden, 2004), 11, 192, 279, no. 7.16, fig. 195 a-d.

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