DiscussionPortrait head of Tetrarch (Diocletian?) with corona civica. From Nicomedia. Late third to early fourth century. DESCRIPTION (Object)Over life-size head. H: 35.5.7, W: 28.5 cm. Fine-grained white marble. The head has probably broken off a statue. The iconography, lack of attention to the top, and the size, taken together, better suit a statue than a bust. The break runs through the top of the neck. The nose is mainly broken off. The top of the head, above the corona, is only roughly rendered. There is drill work in the corona civica. The hair, beard, moustache, and eyebrows are all rendered by a flat chisel. The pupils are rendered by two drill points connected by a curving stroke of the drill. The irises are engraved semi-circles. The head has been re-cut from an earlier portrait, probably of a second-century emperor (see below). The re-cutting is primarily limited to the hair over the brow, a crease across the forehead, and the pupils of the eyes. The hair over the brow has been shortened, and behind the ears the longer locks of the earlier emperor are visible. PROVENANCE The head was found on the western side of the city, near the sea coast. During the building of a paper factory, a series of ‘third century’ Roman buildings appeared; these were described in the Archaeologischer Anzeiger of 1939 as baths, dwellings, and a monumental agora with a fountain and a colonnaded hall. The head was found during these excavations. At the same paper mill, a base for Diocletian (LSA-628) was found. DESCRIPTION (Subject) The head shows an emperor who wears a corona civica with a central jewel and fillets which hang down the back of the head. The Emperor turns to his left. He has short-hair which is combed forward. Across the brow the locks curve sometimes inwards and sometimes outwards, creating a play of ‘fork’ and ‘pincer’ motifs. Behind the ears his hair is longer. The beard is made of short curly locks with continue onto the neck. The moustache fully covers the upper lip and consists of straight hair. He has a carefully modelled and creased brow which swells over the eyebrows and contracts at the root of the nose. This indicates, in addition to concern, his age. The skin beneath the eyes hangs loosely, and the naso-labial folds are marked. DATE AND HONORAND The head represents an Emperor whose portrait has been re-cut from that of an earlier emperor. The short hair and beard plus the rendering of the eye indicate an Emperor of the later third century. The corona civica provides a terminus ante quem since it disappears after the early Constantinian period. The head has since its first publication (Bittel) been identified as Diocletian. Although this specific identification cannot be ascertained with absolute security, the head almost certainly represented a Tetrarch, and for historical and contextual reasons Diocletian would be the most likely candidate. The epigraphic record from Nicomedia supports the identification with Diocletian. Three bases for the Tetrarchs have been recorded at Nicomedia: two for Diocletian (LSA-628, LSA-629) and one for Maximinian (LSA-630). One of the two bases for Diocletian, LSA-628, comes from the same context. A general physiognomical similarity has been noted by Dörner between this head and a portrait on a double herm from Italy LSA-816 which probably represented an emperor since it is paired with a bearded divinity. STYLE The portrait is technically of high-quality. Yet, any discussion of the style of the portrait must consider that it is re-cut from an earlier work. The portraits of the Tetrarchs, re-cut from those of previous Emperors, abound in Asia Minor and are stylistically varied; see, for example, LSA-244, LSA-396, LSA-2542. IDENTIFICATION OF EARLIER PORTRAIT The earlier portrait seems probably to have been a portrait of Hadrian or of Antoninus Pius. Two portraits of Hadrian from Perge, (Inan and Rosenbaum 1979 nos. 45-46), show the same beard length and technique, longer hair behind the ears, and the same use of the drill only in the corona civica. The long form of the eye and the teardrop shape of the inner canthus are typical in Hadrianic portraits. Although not as technically fine as this portrait head from Nicomedia, the Perge Hadrians illustrate the general aspect of the head from which this portrait of a Tetrarch was made. Main ReferenceBittel, K. ‘Archäologische Funde aus der Türkei: 1934-38’ , Archäologischer Anzeiger, Berlin 1939, 156-171, figs. 36-39 (context and identification as Diocletian)Dörner, F.K. ‘Ein neuer Porträtkopf des Kaisers Diokletian’, Die Antike 17, Berlin 1941, 139-46, figs. 2, 4,6, 7 Inan, J. and E. Rosenbaum, Roman and Early Byzantine Portrait Sculpture in Asia Minor, Oxford 1966, 85, no. 61, pl. 39.3-4 Discussion ReferencesDörner, K. F., Inschriften und Denkmäler aus Bithynien, Berlin 1941, 46-7, no. 3, pl. 10 |
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