The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Marble head of a man with short hair, thin lips pressed together in a faint smile, and head tilted slightly to his right. His eyebrows furrow together, with faint creases on his forehead. His ears and nose have been chipped. Dark brown speckles discolor the right side of his face.

Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero

64–79 CE

Italy, Roman

marble
Overall: 40 x 21.6 x 24.9 cm (15 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1929.998
Location: 103 Roman

Did You Know?

Originally a portrait of Emperor Nero, this head was recarved after his damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory).

Description

Although this portrait head was designed to fit into a statue of a body, it did not originally belong with the togate body that held it when purchased by the museum in 1929. In 1973, the two were separated, and the body is now in storage. The head itself was recarved in antiquity, from a likeness of Nero to one of Vespasian, following the damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory) of the former. A line at the back of head shows clearly where the long hair of Nero has been shortened, while other Neronian features, such as a receding lower lip, remain.
  • ?-1928
    Piero Tozzi Gallery, Florence, Italy, sold to Brummer Gallery
    1928-1929
    Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1929-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Platt, Verity. “Reassessing Pliny the Elder at 2000.” In Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder, edited by Verity Platt and Andrew C. Weislogel, pp.15, 21. Ithaca: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, 2024.
    R. H. "The Portrait of a Roman Statesman." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 8 (1929): 139-41. www.jstor.org
    "Cleveland Gets Roman Statue" ARTnews. [New York, etc.] (October 19, 1929). pp. 1, 13
    "Roman Honesty" Art Digest. [New York] (Mid October 1929). p. 19
    Bieber, Margaret. 1944. “Roman Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Art in America 32: 65-83. Reproduced in Fig. 11 (then attached to the togate statue 1929.439).
    Bieber, Margarete. "Roman Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art," Art in America (April 1944). pp. 77, fig. 11
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 40 (then attached to the togate statue 1929.439). archive.org
    Carter, Martha L. Classical Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961. Mentioned and reproduced; p. 11-12; Plate 18 archive.org
    Pollini, John. "Damnatio Memoriae in Stone: Two Portraits of Nero Recut to Vespasian in American Museums." American Journal of Archaeology 88, no. 4 (1984): 547-55. 504743
    Varner, Eric R., and Sheramy D. Bundrick. From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture. Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2000. Pp. 136-139 (Cat. 27).
    Varner, Eric R. Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture. Leiden: Brill, 2004. Pp. 53, 241, Fig. 49a-e (Cat. 2.17).
    Pollini, John. "Recutting Roman Portraits: Problems in Interpretation and the New Technology in Finding Possible Solutions," in The Good, the Bad, and the Altered: Toward a Method of Identifying Recut and Typologically Irregular Roman Imperial Portraits. Edited by Gregory S. Bucher, et al. 23-44. Rome: American Academy in Rome, 2011. Mentioned: p. 32-33, Reproduced: p. 75, figs 21a-e.
    Merchán García, María José. Écija: (Provincia de Sevilla, Hispania Ulterior Baetica). Thesis (Revised). Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla; Tarragona: ICAC, Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 2015. p. 107 Mentioned: p. 107
    Prusac, Marina. From Face to Face: Recarving of Roman Portraits and the Late-Antique Portrait Arts. Second, revised edition. Monumenta Graeca et Romana, Volume 18. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016. P. 134, cat. 67.
    Platt, Verity J., Andrew Weislogel, and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Wonder and Wakefulness : The Nature of Pliny the Elder. Ithaca, New York: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 2024. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 21-23, no. 2
  • Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY (organizer) (January 21-June 12, 2023) https://museum.cornell.edu/exhibitions/wonder-and-wakefulness-nature-pliny-elder.
    Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
    From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture. Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, GA (organizer) (September 16, 2000-January 7, 2001); Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (January 30-March 25, 2001).
    Atlanta, GA: (9/16/00-1/7/01) Michael C. Carolos Museum, Emory University and New Haven, CT: (1/31-3/25/01) Yale University Art Gallery "From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture" exh. cat. no. 27, pp 136-139.
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero|url=false|author=|year=64–79 CE|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1929.998