DiscussionHigh imperial togate statue and re-cut portrait head of emperor. Aphrodisias (Caria). Later fourth century. DESCRIPTION (Object)Life-size statue and separately worked head. Body H: 132, W: 54, D: 45 cm. Head H: 30, W: 18, D: 22 cm. Medium grained white marble. Both statue and head have been re-used. Statue. The small statue is well-finished and originally worked from one block marble from head to plinth. The right hand and wrist as well as fingers of the left hand were repaired in antiquity. A deep and broad socket has been cut into the neck to receive a new head; the new head was secured by a large rectangular dowel. The plinth was clamped on both sides and at the back to a base. Behind the left heel and in the lower part of the exterior side of the stack of tablets are clamp cuttings, and a flat iron clamp is still partially preserved at an awkward angle at the centre of the back. The outer side of the tabella support has also at mid-height a large roughly carved lead-filled hole, of uncertain function. Head. The head has broken in two pieces: right ear and back of head and front of head and left ear. It preserves the neck which ends in a small convex, almost non-existent plug which shows the shallow ghost of a round dowel. The head has been re-shaped and carries a heavily rasped finish. Significantly around the brow holes were cut in to fit a diadem with stones. Also the pupils have been indicated by drilled-out, crescent forms. PROVENANCE The statue body was excavated in 1972 in the Tetrastoon. It was between and east of the west stoa’s second and third column (counting from north to south) base. The left hand was closer to the centre of the square of the Tetrastoon with fragments of LSA-750. The head was found in two pieces between the fourth and fifth columns, near the base for Julian which had been emended to Theodosius, LSA-197. DESCRIPTION (Subject) The statue represents a youthful figure, wearing a tunic, toga, senatorial shoes, and a ring. It is supported on its right side by a vertical stack of writing tablets. The late antique sculptors made no changes to the figure’s dress and attributes, leaving its virtuoso carving as far as possible untouched. The head once wore a diadem and was therefore an emperor. The emperor is depicted as a clean-shaven young man with hair that falls onto the brow in c-shaped locks. The fine features of the face give it a long and mannered aspect. DATE The statue is of high imperial date and has been re-used. The date of the re-use cannot be defined, though the dowel hole at the neck and clamp cuttings suggest a date no earlier than the fourth century. The eye-markings and hair style connect the portrait head to the securely-dated portrait of a Theodosian prince (AD 388-392) at Aphrodisias, LSA-163 (and to an undated portrait from site LSA-180). The fine elegant facial proportions relate well to portraits of the Theodosian period or later from all over the empire; see, for example, LSA-754 or LSA-906. MONUMENT The head, statue, and base for Julian (emended to Theodosius), LSA-197,have all been hypothetically connected. New findings in the storerooms of Aphrodisias suggest that these connections may not be as certain as previously thought on account of the similarity of this monument to the virtually contemporary and adjacent monument set up by the same Antonius Tatianus to the emperor Valens LSA-223 and LSA-750. Main ReferenceSmith, R.R.R., "A portrait monument for Julian and Theodosius at Aphrodisias", in C. Reusser (ed.), Griechenland in der Kaiserzeit: Neue Funde und Forschungen zu Skulptur, Architektur und Topographie, (Bern 2001), 123-36, pls. 32-4Smith, R.R.R., S. Dillon, C.H. Hallett, J. Lenaghan, and J. Van Voorhis, Aphrodisias II: Roman Portrait Sculpture at Aphrodisias, Mainz 2006, no. 5 |
Last Statues of Antiquity
LSA Database