55. Caligula

The Roman emperor Caligula (C. Iulius Caesar Germanicus) was the son of Germanicus and Vipsania Agrippina. He was born in 12 A. D. In the year 37, he became emperor and he remained so until his death in the year 41. The portrait presents a young, beardless man with a wreath of oak leaves around his head. The two ribbons of the wreath fall down upon the shoulders. Caligula is clad in armor with thunderbolts on the shoulder straps and a mask of Medusa on the breastplate. His hair is elaborated with long strands coming down over the temples. The temples are hollowed and the eyebrows are sharp cuttings. The nose is powerful with even, narrow nostrils. The upper lip is compact, but the mouth has been re-cut. The oak wreath has been carved separately out of marble and then inserted into an oblong hole. In the forehead there is another oblong hole, into which a now lost portion of the oak wreath was once placed.

I. N. 1453
Bust.
Marble. H. 0. 51.
Head, neck and bust are connected without any fracture. A propitious fate has also preserved the nose in an unbroken state. The greatest damage is to the ears, the upper edges of which have been cut off. A chip at the back of the head has been cut off and is missing. The right shoulder has once been shattered, but it has now been put back together again. The bust section is elaborated as a cuirass with a round section encircling the neck with a crenellated breastwork-pattern including a border of leather lining.

Acquired in 1896 in Rome, through the mediation of Pollak. Allegedly found during the Tiber regulation.

Bibliography:
F. Poulsen 1951, Cat. 637; V. Poulsen 1973, Cat. 125; F. Johansen MedKøb 37 (1981) 70ff, fig. 17—17c; F. Johansen, WZ Humboldt (1982) 223; H. Jucker, JbBelM 26 (1984) 67, n. 98; F. Johansen, Ancient Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum I (1987) 87ff; D. Boschung, Die Bildnisse des Caligula (1989) 29, 60ff, cat. 43, Taf. 36, 1—4, 44.