Comment on Thorvaldsen's Small Silver Head - A Ruined Tondo Portrait
[The author’s note in the text] For portraits of Trajan and his staff, see W. Gauer, Untersuchung zur Trajanssäule I, Berlin 1977, p. 60ff. Corresponding differences between individual portraits are to be found on other state reliefs. A striking example, which also demonstrates the restriction to which the imperial portrait was subject, is to be found in the placing of Marcus Aurelius together with his son-in-law and the General Pompeianus on 9 out of 11 reliefs from an otherwise no longer extant triumphal arch from 176 A.D. Pompeianus has a tonsorial style whose representation of individual strands corresponds to what we meet in the imperial portrait after Caracalla, that is, almost two generations later; for the Pompeianus portrait, see I. Scott Ryberg, Panel Reliefs of Marcus Aurelius, New York 1967, p. 77ff., cf. also A. Bonanno, Portraits and other Heads on Roman Historical Reliefs up to the Age of Septimius Severus ( = B.A.R. — S6), Oxford 1976 p. 117ff. and N. Hannestad, ‘The Liberalitas Panel of Marcus Aurelius’ Analecta Romana VIII (1977) p.79ff. with references. In isolation a portrait can be completely misdated, if it is judged on hairstyle alone. This applies to the portraits of Aelius Caesar, which have generally been placed in the High Antonine period, although almost all preserved portraits can with a fair degree of certainty be dated to 137-8 A.D., see N. Hannestad, ‘The Portraits of Aelius Caesar’ Analecta Romana VII (1974) p. 67-100.
Last updated 26.11.2015