45. Tiberius

Tiberius Iulius Caesar Augustus (42 B.C. — 37 A.D.), Roman emperor 14—37 A.D.
This portrait type is known as the 1st Tiberius type, the “Adoption-type”.
The fashion in which the hair is stylized is quite complicated. The hair over the forehead is parted up in broad fork-like and tong-like locks. The construction of the hairstyle is asymmetric. Also, the hair at the sides of the head and in the back is built up in such a way that the locks are running into one another without any fixed pattern. The face is well filled out even though it is stylized according to classical form. The subject of the portrait would seem to be in his twenties, which means that we can date the original portrait to around 20 B.C. — 12 B.C.

Copy: Beginning of the 1st cent. A.D.

I. N. 1445
Bust.
Marble. H. 0.47.
The lowest right corner of the bust is damaged. A square hole in the back of the head was made at a later date. Acquired in 1896.
Purchased from the Greek-Egyptian art dealer Alexander Dingli, through the mediation of Valdemar Schmidt. The bust is said to have been found in the amphitheater of Fayum, together with the Livia portrait (36) and the Augustus portrait (33). It is interesting that the Tiberius portrait is eight centimeters shorter in height than the portrait of Augustus; this would seem to indicate a difference in status.

Bibliography:
F. Poulsen 1951, Cat 623, V. Poulsen 1973, Cat. 45, M. Horster, MüJb 24 (1973) 15; Kiss, L’lconographie, 77, Inan & Rosenbaum, Porträtplastik, 68, 71; Fittschen & Zanker, Porträts I, ad no. 10, Replica 1, 12, n. 5, 21, n. 4. 6, K. Stemmer, Museums Journal III, 3 (1989) 32, Abb. 9; F. Johansen, MedKøb 43 (1987) 72, figs. 15—16; J. C. Balty, Quaderni de “La ricerca scientifica”, 116 (1988) 42, figs. 4—6, D. Boschung, JRA 6 (1993) 57, L b Skizze 31; Boschung, Augustus (1993) 71, 325, 72, n. 327.