Artwork Page for Portrait Bust of a Man

Details / Information for Portrait Bust of a Man

Portrait Bust of a Man

27 BCE–14 CE

Italy, Roman, Augustan period

Medium
bronze
Measurements
Overall: 38.1 x 21.6 cm (15 x 8 1/2 in.)
Weight: 19.958 kg (44 lbs.)
Credit Line
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1928.860
Public Domain
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Location
103 Roman
Print
?

Did You Know?

This portrait originally had inlaid eyes, probably in stone, glass, or ivory.

Description

The realistic features of this fine life-sized portrait include wrinkles in the forehead and beside each eye, and very naturalistic ears, protruding but not quite symmetrical. The stylized hair is neatly arranged and suggests a date in the Augustan period, although some scholars have seen it as late Republican. Likely once topping a shaft as a herm bust, the portrait’s subject—now unknown—would have been identified by an inscription.
A mottled green and brown bronze sculpture depicts a man's head and upper chest. He turns slightly toward our right, his face featuring large, deeply recessed hollow eye cavities. Short, overlapping wavy locks of hair cover his scalp. Below a straight nose and closed mouth, the neck transitions into a smooth, rounded chest area. The corroded metal surface shifts through varied tones, revealing the hollow cast bronze.

Portrait Bust of a Man

27 BCE–14 CE

Italy, Roman, Augustan period

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