Getty Museum

Weight in the Form of a Grotesque Head

Date

about 1st century B.C.–1st century A.D.

Medium

Bronze with lead

Culture

Greek or Roman

Department

Implements

Institution

Getty Museum

With his thick lips, large ears, prominent nose, and receding forehead, the man depicted on this weight is the antithesis of Greek and Roman ideals of beauty. His head is shaven except for a long lock in the back, now mostly missing. This lock of hair, called a *cirrus,* marks the man as an enslaved person. In the Aristotelian philosophy popular at the time, it was believed that a person's inner qualities, like character and intelligence, were mirrored by their exterior appearance. Beginning in the Hellenistic period in the late 300s B.C. and continuing into the Roman period, such grotesques and exaggerated caricatures were quite popular. Designed for use with a steelyard scale, this weight is a miniature sculpture with a hollow cast bronze outer shell. The interior was then filled with lead to give the proper weight. Steelyard weights often took the form of heads or busts. Originally, the man's single lock of hair served as a loop by which this weight was suspended.

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