75. Male portrait head of republican type

Marble. Rough Parian.
Height. (Over life size.) Top of head to point of chin 0.29. Below chin to top of drapery 0.125.
Restorations. The nose. The right ear is chipped. The bust.

The head, that of an elderly man, is slightly inclined to the left. The square forehead is furrowed, the overhanging brows well marked; there are small lines at the root of the nose and the corners of the eyes. The hair, in long, carelessly arranged locks, frames the broad forehead and grows low on the back of the neck. The age is indicated not only by the well-moulded wrinkles on the face and by the sunk mouth, but also by the emphatic rendering of the cheeks and throat and of the details round the collar bone. The effect of a portrait true to life is given by the irregularity of the features. The ears are large and laid flat against the head.

Coarse but effective work, probably of the end of the ist century B.C. It is of Republican type, but may, like so many others, be an Imperial, 1st century A. D. copy of a Republican portrait. The bust is modern.

The traditional name of the head is “Galba,” but this identification cannot be confirmed. The former gallery number in Lord Egremont ’ s Catalogue was 76A, and it has been renumbered for the present catalogue. It was not seen by Michaelis.