Unknown Portrait Bust

[Nathan Ross]

Looking around on the net for Roman portrait busts in the Vatican museums, I found the image below. It's not labelled or identified at all, and I don't even know if it's Roman. Possibly the head and upper torso are from different eras. Can anyone identify it, or guess a possible date? The hairstyle looks sort of vaguely Severan/Syrian, perhaps, or even Egyptian...



Any ideas?

- Nathan

[Ron Andrea]

No clue.

The material of the head and neck certainly looks different than that of the body. Head swapping was common.

[Jona Lendering]

The hairstyle looks sort of vaguely Severan/Syrian, perhaps, or even Egyptian...

Negroid, I would say.

[Nathan Ross]

The material of the head and neck certainly looks different than that of the body. Head swapping was common.

Looks that way, doesn't it. I think, though, that different types of stone were often used for the head (which would have been painted anyway) and the shoulders - coloured marbles were sometimes used to do the clothing, and then left unpainted. In this case, the robe is very fine marble, which possibly took a better 'edge' for the sharp folds, while the head is possibly a softer stone, easier to model the contours of the face and details of hair. That still doesn't mean it's an original match - I believe classical busts were sometimes 'renovated' much later - Renaissance/Baroque particularly.

Jona - yeah, the hairstyle does look African - a bit like the Nubians from Egyptian art. The face, though, reminds me of the famous bust of a Flavian woman with the piled-up ringlets. It's certainly a very striking and 'characterful' piece - whether it's genuinely classical or a later restoration/interpretation, it appears to be unique. I'm surprised I've never seen a reproduction of it anywhere before!

- Nathan