Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait Bust of a Man

Date

27 BCE–14 CE

Medium

bronze

Culture

Italy, Roman, Augustan period

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The realistic features of this fine life-sized portrait include wrinkles in the forehead and beside each eye, and very naturalistic ears, protruding but not quite symmetrical. The stylized hair is neatly arranged and suggests a date in the Augustan period, although some scholars have seen it as late Republican. Likely once topping a shaft as a herm bust, the portrait’s subject—now unknown—would have been identified by an inscription. This portrait originally had inlaid eyes, probably in stone, glass, or ivory.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.