Perhaps made in Cyprus. Ca. 20—40 CE.
Height 36.83 cm. Inv. No. 1886,1113.1.London, British Museum
Head of a man from the Julio-Claudian family (Drusus the Younger?).
Perhaps made in Cyprus. Ca. 20—40 CE.
Height 36.83 cm.
London, British Museum.
A rare sculpture carved in Cyprus of imported marble
This is a rare sculpture probably carved on Cyprus by a sculptor familiar with Cypriot traditions of working in limestone but using imported marble.
The marble of this piece has a slightly greyish tinge. It resembles, and may be, Proconnesian marble from the sea of Marmara. The back of the head was never finished and is now partly split away and partly hewn out, though the neck is worked to fit a complete statue. The flat planes of the carving suggest that it was made by a sculptor familiar with the carving of limestone. Thus it was possibly carved in Cyprus alongside other Roman sculptures of imported marble.
The portrait has the characteristics of the younger Drusus (15 BC — AD 23), son of Emperor Tiberius, as shown on his coins. Note in particular the slightly curving nose, the arching eyebrows and the hair that falls down low over the forehead. Portraiture played a vital role in establishing the public identity of the first imperial family of Rome. While often regarded — inaccurately — as a provinicial backwater, the island was important for its natural resources, notably grain, copper and timber.
W. A. Daszewski, Marble sculptures in Nea Paphos: Cypriot or imported, in: F. Vandenabeele and R. Laffineur, Cypriote stone sculpture: Proceedings of the second international conference of Cypriote studies (Brussels-Liége, A. G. Leventis Foundation, 1994), pp. 153—
S. Walker, Greek and Roman portraits (London, The British Museum Press, 1995), pp. 61—
