Patrician carrying busts

The following texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the Web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only.

All the information in our site are given for nonprofit educational purposes

The information of medicine and health contained in the site are of a general nature and purpose which is purely informative and for this reason may not replace in any case, the council of a doctor or a qualified entity legally to the profession.

Patrician carrying busts

PATRICIAN CARRYING BUSTS

The piece was completed somewhere between 10BC and the start of the first century AD.

Life sized statue                  - carrying two busts of old men
of a                                      - wearing a tunic, over which is draped a toga (official dress of a
Roman                                Roman citizen).
Patrician                              - his head is ancient but it does not belong to the body. It does ‘fit’ however because it is also in the Veristic style.
- his right hand rests upon a palm tree trunk (for support).
- his left hand is free of any support which suggests the busts are supposed to be imagined that they are made from wax and not marble.

Wax because it was the patrician practise (according to Pliny the Elder) of making death masks for funerals and display in the family home. However the material is most likely a more durable one, like bronze or clay.

The busts were made in the 1st century AD so that various family members could have them in their houses. Marble would have been chosen for the copies because the originals could be easily reproduced in marble (by the ‘pointing process’).

Only patricians had the right to have portrait images of their ancestors. The more a family had the longer and more illustrious its family was. So they were in effect a status symbol which any new comer to the patrician class would have lacked.

The busts - both busts are realistic, or Veristic.
- they stop just below the neck which is a form from the Late Republican period.
- they are of two old men and represent patricians ancestors
- he holds them close to suggest a special relationship, or special place in his family.

Left hand bust - style of c.50BC.
- probably represents the man’s grandfather
- balding with wrinkles under his neck

Right hand bust - style of c.40-30BC
- probably that of his father
- short hair combed forward towards the forehead and temples.
- groves around mouth, tight, thin lips, severe look

Attention paid to bone structure, particularly with the father. Skin is stretched over bones to reveal their structure.

Men shown as old, experienced, authoritative.

Eyes lacking carved pupils and iris, these details would have been painted on later.

No beards or moustaches, and incision (not drilling) for the hair.

Veristic style used - Wrinkles and creases shown - especially on the brow
(Veristic – “true”) - at the corners of the eyes
- and the sides of the mouth.
- ‘warts and all’ style that was favoured in the Late Republic
- drapery also shown in Veristic style because it hangs with irregular folds

Sculptures probably Greek or Easterners. Realistic style was a Greek style, not Roman or Italian.

Source : http://www.rosehill-college.co.nz/DataStore/Pages/PAGE_1035/Docs/Documents/Keynotes.doc

Web site link: http://www.rosehill-college.co.nz/

Google key word : Patrician carrying busts file type : doc

Author : not indicated on the source document of the above text

If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly.