Male Bust

Portrait of a man restored on an ancient bust with restorations to the lips and damage to the cheeks. There is a tensity on the left side of the neck which may indicate that the head was originally turned to the right. The man looks serious and he is of a middle age with lowered brows and forehead but an unwrinkled skin. His face is strong and his jaw heavy, his chin is wide and protrudes slightly. He has rather long cheeks. The eyes are set deep into the sockets but are small and emphasised by a groove underneath the lower lid. His mouth is long and narrow and has an invisible upper lid. The hairstyle spreads from a point at the back of the hair with long thick curly locks at the forehead which forms a mass. A small fork shaped parting breaks up this mass just above the left eye with a few locks on a higher level. The rest of the hair is short and combed towards the ears or down the neck in shorter curly locks. At the back incised lines indicate individual hair or strands of hair. The plasticity of the hairstyle with the different layers of locks and the combination with the shorter hair at the back led Jane Fejfer to date the portrait to the Trajanic period ( 98-117 AD ). The bust is cut in one piece with the index plaque. The fringed paludamentum is a characteristic of the late Antonine period and can also be seen in the portrait of Marcus Aurelius 59.148.98