Getty Museum

Portrait Head of Tiberius ("The Lansdowne Tiberius")

Date

A.D. 14–37

Medium

Marble

Culture

Roman

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

This portrait head represents the Roman emperor Tiberius. He is recognizable by the thin eyebrows, almond-shaped eyes and thin lips, and his hair features comma-shaped locks that radiate from the crown of his head. The nose and part of the chin were restored during treatment in 2013. Following its discovery, this head had been paired with a body from another ancient statue, and earlier publications – dating back to the nineteenth century, when the portrait was in the collection of Lansdowne family in England – show the Tiberius head atop a full-size nude male body. Between 1966 and 1971, the head and body were taken apart, and sold separately. The body is now at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA (inv 71.535).

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