DiscussionPortrait head of Tetrarch wearing wreath with busts. Felix Romuliana (Dacia Ripensis). Early fourth century. DESCRIPTION (object)Porphyry head of an emperor wearing a wreath adorned with 3 gems and 4 busts. The nose and the outer rims of the ears of the portrait and the heads of the busts are missing. H. 35 cm. The head is slightly turned to its right. PROVENANCE AND CURRENT LOCATION Excavated 1993 in a secondary deposition in the east apse of the central hall of the bath of Galerius’ palace Romuliana/Gamzigrad. It is today in the National Museum, Zajèčar, inv. no. 1477. DESCRIPTION (subject) The head has a moderately lined face, a double chin, short cropped hair without surface marking, and so far it has been considered to be without a beard. It does carry, however, indicators that it was painted. This is of some importance for the aesthetic character of porphyry sculpture as well as being iconographically significant. These indicators can be observed on the eyes, and particularly on the jawbones. 1. The surface of the head is polished throughout, including the iris rings of the eyes which stand proud of the surface of the eyeballs. The deeper lying surface of the eyeballs, in contrast, is roughened up; this is a clear indicator that a paste – white – was inserted here so that the eye formed a consistent surface. Colour must have also been inserted into the furrow between the two rings of the iris. 2. The hair as a mass is set against the flesh, but has no markings on its surface. On both sides of the face the hair at the temples has no clear contours at the bottom, but fades into the skin. Only its outer rims continue downwards in front of the ears and slightly along the jawbones. These cannot be sideburns, as has been thought, but must be the boundaries of a beard. On the left side, the sculptor had started to indicate the transition from the temple hair to the beard by fine regular scratches, but gave it up. However, it can be concluded from this that the head was bearded with the beard given in paint. The same ist true for the texture of the hair. The beardless tondo-portrait of Galerius in the small arch from the palace of Galerius at Thessaloniki, dated to the years 308-311 (Stephanidou-Tiberiou 1995 pl.5), is no argument against this solution. As beards were represented with very fine incisions or even dots in the late tetrarchy (cf.Maxentius, and Licinius on the arch of Constantine L’Orange 1984 pl.27-29, Licinius in Ephesos and Izmir Smith 1997 pl.1-4), contrary to the rough characterisation in the earlier phase, the beard must have been indicated with paint in the tondo portrait. The portrait of Galerius on the quadrifrons of Thessaloniki, dated to after 298, has the normal tetrarchic beard (Stephanidou-Tiberiou 1995 pl.18.19). For very fine painted beards on the portraits of Nero, Titus and Domitian, see www.viamus.de. Of course also the wreath, gems and busts must have been painted with colours. The colours of the reconstruction of the painting of beard and hair in the reconstruction made at the Archaeological Institute of the University of Göttingen are hypothetical; instead of gold more lifelike colours may have been chosen. The head is crowned with a laurel wreath of small leaves decorated with three jewels and four busts the heads of which are missing. These have been plausibly interpreted as the divine protectors of the tetrarchy, Jupiter, Herakles, Sol and Mars (see below, ‘Honorand and Date’). The wreath is being held at its back in the r i g h t hand of a smaller figure crowning the emperor (so described by the excavator D. Srejović): difficult to recognize in the published photographs, the thumb grips round the wreath and emerges between head and wreath. H. P. Laubscher described it from the photographs erroneously as a left hand, with far-reaching consequences for the reconstruction of a group and possible identification of the portrayed (Laubscher 1999). The crowning figure should be a victory, as is shown on a number of coins and reliefs from the tetrarchic period, where a victory sometimes even crowns two emperors with both ist hands (Srejović 1994, 147 fig.8.9; Laubscher 1999, 246 fig.24.25). HONORAND AND DATE Because of the head’s provenience from the palace built by Galerius and named Romuliana after his mother, the identification of the portrayed as Galerius has been proposed from the very beginning by the excavator D. Srejović.This identification is probable, but needs discussion. Only some aspects shall be mentioned. 1. The only fixed dates for the activities, building and use of the palace of Romuliana by Galerius a) are coins found in the tumulus with a female burial (probably Romula), the latest of which are dated to the years 293- 294 (Borić-Bresković 1994; Srejović, Vasić 1994, 138 n.14) and b) reliefs found at the west gate showing signa militaria with 6 emperors’ busts in a constellation, which is possible in the years 305-6: the resigned Diocletianus and Maximianus Herculeus and four new emperors (Srejović 1994, 144 fig.1-5). 2. As the four tetrarchs were normally represented as a group – at least in public - theoretically all emperors reigning between 293 and 313 might be represented. 3. As there exists a second neck of the same size, hair style and posture as the fully preserved head, and probably also crowned by a small victory, from Romuliana (LSA-1092), both may have belonged to a group of four or of two figures only or there may have been two portraits of one and the same emperor placed in different parts of the palace. If it was a group of two, the most probable combination would be Galerius and his nephew and Caesar, later co-Augustus Maximinus Daza between 305 and 311. The right hand of the victory would then show, that the emperor portrayed in the fully preserved head was the right one in a group, which indicates the person with a higher status. 4. The only personal feature of the portrait, the double chin, could indicate three of the tetrarchs: a) Maximianus Herculeus (285/93-305/6-9), who, however, should be older, as his coin portraits and the one in the Vatican groups (LSA-840) show; b) Galerius (293-311), portraits on coins and in relief: Stephanidou-Tiberiou 1995, 112-114 pl. 5 (slightly fat); 18.19 (typified); ancient literature, exaggerating: Lactantius, de mortibus persecutorum 9,1-3); or c) Licinius (308-24) as identified in two fat over life-size portraits at Ephesos (Smith 1997 pl.1-4). Licinius in a double group would only be possible in the time of his cooperation with Galerius and Maximinus Daza between 308-11 and is less probable than Galerius at the place. This leaves at present Galerius as the most probable solution. 5. Wreaths adorned with busts of deities or emperors are usually worn by the priests and functionaries of the respective cults (Rumscheid 1999 passim, esp.108-112). A wreath with the tutelary deities of the tetrarchy would be appropriate for Galerius in the years 306-11, when he was Maximus Augustus and tried to hold together the crumbling structure of the tetrarchy. FURTHER COMMENT The portrait from Romuliana shows, that the other tetrarchic porphyry portraits with hair set against the flesh, but no characterisation of its surface texture and no beards (see, the Venice tetrarchs LSA-4, LSA-439and the fragments from Niš, LSA-1041, and Tekija, LSA-1042) had the surface texture of the hair and beards indicated in paint. It holds that all tetrarchs up to Licinius were represented with a beard, as the coins show it (save few late exceptions). Main ReferenceSrejović, D. 'The Representations of Tetrarchs in Romuliana', Antiquité tardive 2, Paris 1994, 143-52, figs. 10-17Sommer-von Bülow, G. and U. Wulf-Rheidt, Felix Romuliana. Der Palast des Kaisers Galerius und sein Umfeld. Eine serbisch-deutsche Kooperation / Palata imperatora Galerija i njena okolina. Srpsko-nemacka saradnja, Berlin 2009, 17, fig. 1.2 (coloured version) Laubscher, H.-P., 'Beobachtungen zu tetrarchischen Kaiserbildnissen aus Porphyr', Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 114, Berlin 1999, 242-250 Discussion ReferencesBorić-Brešković, B., Gold coins from the Consecration Memorial 1, Srejović, D. & Č. Vasić (eds.), Imperial mausolea and consecration memorials in Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, East Serbia), 159-79, Belgrade 1994, Rumscheid, J., Kranz und Krone : zu Insignien, Siegespreisen und Ehrenzeichen der römischen Kaiserzeit, Tübingen 2000, Smith, R.R.R.,'The public image of Licinius I: Portrait sculpture and imperial ideology in the early fourth century', JRS 87, 1997, 170-202 Srejović, D. & Č. Vasić, Emperor Galerius’s buildings in Romuliana, Antiquité Tardive 2, 1994, 123-141, Stephanidou-Tiberiou, T., To mikro toxo tou Galeriou sti Thessaloniki, Athens 1995, |
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