Sculpture
Nearly all the builders of Republican temples and sanctuaries were
men from old and distinguished families. Often they were victorious
generals who used the spoils of war to finance public works. These
aristocratic patricians were fiercely proud of their lineage. They kept
likenesses (imagines) of their ancestors in wooden cupboards in
their homes and paraded them at the funerals of prominent rela-
tives. Portraiture was one way the patrician class celebrated its
elevated position in society. The case of Marius, a renowned Repub-
lican general who lacked a long and distinguished genealogy, under-
scores the importance of ancestral imagines in elite circles. Marius’s
patrician colleagues in the Senate ridiculed him as a man who had
no portraits in his home.
VERISMThe subjects of these portraits were almost exclusively
men (and to a lesser extent women) of advanced age, for generally
only elders held power in the Republic. These patricians did not ask
sculptors to make them appear nobler than they were, as Kresilas por-
trayed Pericles (FIG. 5-41). Instead, they requested brutally realistic im-
ages with distinctive features, in the tradition of the treasured house-
hold imagines.One of the most striking of these so-called veristic
(superrealistic) portraits is the head (FIG. 10-7) of an unidentified
patrician from Osimo. The sculptor painstakingly recorded each rise
and fall, each bulge and fold, of the facial surface, like a mapmaker
who did not want to miss the slightest detail of surface change.
Scholars debate whether such portraits were truly blunt records of
actual features or exaggerated types designed to make a statement
about personality: serious, experienced, determined, loyal to family
and state—virtues that were much admired during the Republic.TIVOLI GENERALThe Osimo head also illustrates that the
Romans believed the head alone was enough to constitute a portrait.
The Greeks, in contrast, believed the head and body were insepara-
ble parts of an integral whole, so their portraits were always full
length (FIG. 5-87). In fact, in Republican portraiture, veristic heads
were often—although incongruously—placed on bodies to which
they could not possibly belong. Such is the case in the curious and
discordant portrait of a general (FIG. 10-8) found at Tivoli. The
cuirass(leather breastplate) at his side, which serves as a prop for the
heavy marble statue, is the emblem of his rank. But the general does
not appear as he would in life. Although he has a typically stern and
lined Republican head, it sits atop a powerful, youthful, almost nude
body. The sculptor modeled the portrait on the statues of Greek ath-
letes and heroes the Romans admired so much and often copied (see
Chapter 5). The incorporation of references to Greek art in these
portrait statues evoked the notion of patrician cultural superiority
and elevated the person portrayed to heroic status.
NONELITE PORTRAITURE In stark contrast to this elite
tradition of publicly displaying portraits, slaves and former slaves
could not possess any family portraits, because under Roman law, their
parents and grandparents were not people but property. Freed slaves,
however, often ordered portrait reliefs (FIGS. 10-9and 10-10) for
their tombs to commemorate their new status as Roman citizens (see
“Art for Former Slaves,” page 243).10-7Head of an old man, from Osimo, mid-first century bce.Marble,
life-size. Palazzo del Municipio, Osimo.
Veristic (superrealistic) portraits of old men from distinguished families
were the norm during the Republic. The sculptor of this head pain-
stakingly recorded every detail of the elderly man’s face.10-8Portrait of
a Roman general,
from the Sanctuary
of Hercules, Tivoli,
Italy, ca. 75–50 bce.
Marble, 6 2 high.
Museo Nazionale
Romano–Palazzo
Massimo alle
Terme, Rome.
The sculptor based
this life-size portrait
of a general on
idealized Greek
statues of heroes
and athletes, but
the man’s head is
a veristic likeness.
The eclectic com-
bination is typical
of Republican art.1 ft.242 Chapter 10 THE ROMAN EMPIRE1 in.10-7AMan
with ancestor
busts, late first
century BCE.