Late 1st century BCE — early 1st century CE.
Height 35.6 cm. Sotheby’s Auction House, New York
Portrait of Augustus.
Late 1st century BCE — early 1st century CE.
Height 35.6 cm.
Sotheby’s Auction House, New York.
the emperor turned slightly to his left, his commanding face with deep-set almond-shaped eyes under slightly arched and sharply ridged eyebrows, and furrows above the fragmentary nose, his thick hair radiating from the crown and falling in crescentic locks over the forehead and temples.
Height 14 in. (35.6 cm.)
This portrait belongs to the representation of Augustus known as the Primaporta, which first appeared around 27 B.C. and takes its name from the monumental marble cuirassed statue of Augustus found in his wife Livia’s villa at Primaporta near Rome; cf. Brilliant, Roman Art, p. 113, fig. II.32. The characteristic arrangement of the curls over the forehead is the chief defining feature of the type. According to Paul Zanker, «the new portrait is a completely intellectual and artificial work of art, composed of Classical forms subtly mixed with just a few authentic physiognomic traits. The youthfulness of Octavian is transformed into an ageless “Classical” beauty» (The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1988, p. 99, transl. Joel Shapiro).
