Statue of Togate Man

Over life-size statue of a male, Late Augustan, wearing a full-length toga, with a book scroll in his extended left hand. He wears simple shoes, and there is a cylindrical capsa (a box for holding clothing) supporting his left leg. He wears a long tunic and a full length toga draped around the body and the over the left shoulder. He holds the umbo of the toga. His gaunt and furrowed face identifies him as an elderly orator. The statue has undergone surprisingly little restoration, considering its size, most notably to its nose and the scroll. The statue was not intended to be viewed in the round but rather from the front, hence the neck support and lack of detail in the toga at the back. The neck-support, left in a state of claw-chiselling, is a technical device typical of sculpture from Asia Minor and North Africa, and is quite rare in the western Roman areas. Purchased by Henry Blundell from the Mattei Collection on his first trip to Italy in 1777 and displayed at Ince in the Garden Temple.