Getty Museum

Portrait Head of Man

Date

late 1st century B.C.

Medium

Italian marble

Culture

Roman

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

In the veristic style, the face is riddled with lines, grooves, and crevices. Several of these lines are carved into the cheeks and jowls and the flesh around the nose is sagging. The nose itself is bulbous and deeply lined with large nostrils. The eyes are small and narrow with bags underneath and crow's feet at the corners. The eyebrows are modeled and indicated by hatch marks. Three deep vertical furrows appear above the ridge of the nose and the mouth is downturned with deep lines in the corners. The ears are large and the hair is receding, rendered as quite short with hatch marks. The neck is very short with a number of folds. The top of the head is a roughly worked, sloping plane with an iron dowel in the center. The bust is carved for insertion into a statue. The preservation is excellent, the bust only sustaining minor chips. The marble is white with a yellowish patina.

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