portrait head
- Museum number
- 1850,0304.35
- Description
-
Head from an over-life-sized marble statue of the emperor Vespasian, perhaps re-carved from a portrait of Nero. The nose is missing.
- Production date
- 70-80 (59-64 Terme Type of Nero, which may have been the original portrait)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 45.72 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- The head may have been re-carved from a portrait of Nero, after the latter's death and damnatio memoriae. This is indicated by the appearance of the marble surface on the back of the neck, where it looks like an originally longer section of hair was removed, by the disproportionately large ears, and by inconsistencies in the coiffure.
- M. Bergmann and P. Zanker, "'Damnatio Memoriae': Umgearbeitete Nero- und Domitiansportraets. Zur Ikonographie der flavischen Kaiser und des Nerva", in JDI 96 (1981), 317-412 [this head p. 344 no. 8 fig 20].
- E. R. Varner, Mutilation and Transformation. Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture (Leiden 2004).
- Location
- On display (G70)
- Exhibition history
-
2011 May - October, Carlisle, Tullie House Museum, short-term term loan
2016-2017, Oct-May, Defacing the Past exhibition at BM
2021 May 27-Oct 24, London, BM SEG, Nero
- Acquisition date
- 1850
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1850,0304.35