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Lot Essay
PUBLISHED:
J. Toynbee, 'A Bust of an Antonine Boy', Journal of Roman Studies, 49, 1959, pp. 39-40, pls. 1-3; and C. A. Picón, Bartolomeo Cavaceppi: Eighteenth-Century Restorations of Ancient Marble Sculpture from English Private Collections, London, 1983, footnote to no. 12.
Toynbee, op.cit. argues that, although this bust is remarkably similar to the bust of Commodus in the Sala degli Imperatori in the Capitoline Museum, Rome, the lack of hooked nose suggests that the child could represent his younger brother Annius Verus (162/163-169 A.D.), perhaps executed shortly before his death, given the fact that some ancient portraitists tended to make their child-subjects look older than their years.
Toynbee concludes: "That the boy is an imperial prince seems to be certain in view of the fact that he wears the paludamentum; and the only imperial child of this youthful age who could have been portrayed in this technique and style is either Commodus or Annius Verus."
J. Toynbee, 'A Bust of an Antonine Boy', Journal of Roman Studies, 49, 1959, pp. 39-40, pls. 1-3; and C. A. Picón, Bartolomeo Cavaceppi: Eighteenth-Century Restorations of Ancient Marble Sculpture from English Private Collections, London, 1983, footnote to no. 12.
Toynbee, op.cit. argues that, although this bust is remarkably similar to the bust of Commodus in the Sala degli Imperatori in the Capitoline Museum, Rome, the lack of hooked nose suggests that the child could represent his younger brother Annius Verus (162/163-169 A.D.), perhaps executed shortly before his death, given the fact that some ancient portraitists tended to make their child-subjects look older than their years.
Toynbee concludes: "That the boy is an imperial prince seems to be certain in view of the fact that he wears the paludamentum; and the only imperial child of this youthful age who could have been portrayed in this technique and style is either Commodus or Annius Verus."