FLAVIAN PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 1ST CENTURY A.D.

The suicide of Emperor Nero on 9 June 68 A.D. set off a crisis throughout the Roman Empire. Rome was plunged into a series of civil wars and within a period of about a year, Galba, Otho and Vitellius replaced one another in rapid succession before Vespasian restored peace in 69 A.D. Within this short time span, a revolution of Roman portraiture occurred. In comparison to the classical idealism, mythological allusions and eternally youthful imagery of the Julio-Claudian elite, this new art form was verisitic and direct. As D.E.E. Kleiner notes (p. 168 Roman Sculpture) this change was brought about for propagandistic purposes; in Galba’s portraits, for example, his “more straightforward military persona rejected” the Julio-Claudian ideals inherent in earlier portraiture and symbolizes “the anti-Neronian sentiment of the new emperor and his supporters.”
The present portrait – with short-cropped wavy hair, furrowed brow, large deep-set eyes, prominent naso-labial folds, small closed mouth and fleshy cheeks – rejects Julio-Claudian idealism in favor of the revival of Republic verism. Its powerful gaze and plump face recall the portrait of Vitellius, no. 1 in F. Johansen, Romerske Portrætter II. Also compare the reworked head from Carthage of Vespasian, fig. 138 in Kleiner, op. cit. While this portrait has yet to be identified, Kleiner notes that private statuary depicting older men was popular during the Flavian era.