A Marble Bust of an Emperor , Roman Imperial, Antonine, mid 2nd Century A.D.

the neck carved out for insertion of an over-lifesize portrait head, probably of an Antonine Emperor, wearing a tunic, cuirass with fragmentary lappets covering the shoulder, and paludamentum fastened with a circular brooch and falling in fringed zigzag folds over the left shoulder and chest, the shoulder strap secured to the cuirass with a cord tied into a knot; carved in one piece with the plinth and circular socle.

Natalia Timofejeff, Beverly Hills, California, 1979

Chaucer Fine Arts Inc., Rome. A Vision of Antiquity. Pictures and Drawings. Classical Sculpture, catalogue of the exhibition held at the Gallery, 45 Pimlico Road, June 12th to July 18th, 1980, London, Summer 1980, no. 54, illus. (entry by Dr. Geoffrey B. Waywell)

For a similar draped and cuirassed bust, carved in one piece with a portrait head of Antoninus Pius, see the example in the Museo Nazionale in Naples, inv. no. 6031 (Wegner, Die Herrscherbildnisse in antoninischer Zeit, Berlin, 1939, pl. 1); for another related bust with head of Lucius Verus see K. de Kersauson, Musée du Louvre. Catalogue des portraits romains, vol. II, Paris, 1996, no. 117 (Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, p. 274, fig. 239). Also see the portrait bust of Marcus Aurelius in the Capitoline Museum, Stanza degli Imperatori 28. Inv. 448, for a similarly draped fringed cloak (Wegner, op. cit., pl. 26, K. Fittschen and P. Zanker, Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen, vol. 1, Mainz, 1985, no. 69, pl. 79, and Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, p. 272, fig. 237).

The supreme ruler appears here in campaign garb in his quality of imperator, or military field commander. The uniformity of the marble surface belies the variety and richness of materials used in the actual accoutrements: linen or wool for the tunic, white or purple-dyed fabric with gold thread for the paludamentum, burnished bronze for the cuirass, silver for the brooch and the inlaid details of the cuirass such as the nipples, and leather for the lappets and thong.