Male Bust

Over life size portrait of a man from the time of the Roman Republic, perhaps a successful general or politician, on ancient but recut togate bust. Head and bust were made from different marbles and there has been excessive restoration on the bust as well as chemical treatment for cleaning it. The head must have been cut to fit into a statue and as must have originally turned to the right than how it was fitted into this bust. The man has a volimuous hairstyle with thick tousled front hair, combed to the right from a parting over the left eye. The locks increase in volume over the middle of the forehead in an anastole arrangement. There were originally two long locks over the right eye, the traces of the recutting by the modern restorer are still visible. At the temples the hair is arranged in shorter disordered thick locks and at the nape of the neck, the locks are grown longer and sweep towards the ears. The man is of middle age as suggested by the wrinkles at the outer corners of the eyes, the heavy pouches below the eyes, the fleshy cheeks and the double chin and neck with folds of fat. The face is small and treated in the characteristic way of veristic portraits of older mean from the late Republican era, influenced by the Hellenistic tradition. Jane Fejfer sugggested that this may be a portrait of a famous general or politician because of the size of the portrait and its resemblance to the Hellenistic tradition. The bust is draped in a tunica and a toga and has been recut from a statue as it is clear by its size, the fold falling over the index plaque, the assymetry of the raised right shoulder and the modern dressing of the back. The style and the large flat umbo indicate a date of late Augustian/Tiberian period while the arrangement of the deep cuttings of the folds in the right breast and from the neckline to the middle of the breast and in a V shape, may suggest a Claudian or even later era.