CIRCA LATE 2ND CENTURY A.D.

This commanding portrait would have formed part of a relief, possibly for a funerary niche. The skilled workmanship demonstrates that the man represented was a respected individual, perhaps either an official or a wealthy landowner. He is depicted with tight, coiled curls that fall vertically on his forehead, which was fashionable across the entire Roman Empire. It was also the trend at this time to break from the classical tradition of realism in favor of a baroque style of portraiture, depicting exaggerated and contrasting features, such as the smoothness of the face with the roughness of the hair, as with this example.

Later portraits from the reign of Commodus (180-192 A.D.) and the early years of Septimius Severus’s reign (193-211 A.D.) share a stylistic resemblance to the present example. Here, the rounded articulated eyes are framed with heavy upper and lower lids, which gaze into the distance, giving the sitter an entranced expression: a feature found in most of the later portraits of Commodus. The facial hair is also similar to some later portraits of Commodus in that it is subtly rendered with curled stubble around the jaw line and with a gentle moustache, see no. 96 in F. Johansen, Katalog Romerske Portrætter II, NY Carlsberg Glyptotek, for similar.

The sitter of this portrait was possibly of North African origin. Roman activity in Africa is reflected in art and literary sources throughout the history of the Empire. The Emperor Septimius Severus was himself from Libya, and men from his province are attested to have served among the Emperor’s auxiliaries (see “The Life of Septimius Severus,” in Historia Augusta, 22.4-5). For another similar male portrait had, cut flat at the back, possibly from a reused architectural element or to fit in a nice, see S. Walker & M. Bierbrier, Ancient Faces, London, 1997, p. 197, no. 269.