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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1949.83
Title
Head of a Bearded Man
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, head
Date
3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291711

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Greek mainland marble
Dimensions
25 cm h x 18 cm w x 20 cm d (9 13/16 x 7 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[A. Barsanti, Italy, 1927], sold; to [Brummer Gallery, New York, 1927], sold; to I. N. Phelps Stokes, NY, 1927-1934, on consignment; to [Brummer Gallery, New York, 1934-1943], sold; to [Brummer Gallery, New York, 1943-1949], sold; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1949.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Grace Nichols Strong Memorial Fund
Accession Year
1949
Object Number
1949.83
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
140

Head of a Bearded Man

Much of the nose, the outer part of the right ear, and the entire top of the left ear are missing.

This portrait conveys a strong, frontal feeling. The hair is cut short, and occasionally the details of the curls are incised. The closed mouth conveys the suggestion of a smile.

There are a number of contemporary portraits of Romans and others similar to this bearded man, varying only in the shapes of their heads and the degrees to which hair and beard are cut or incised. The one-eyed man in Schloss Erbach is slightly older in years and sat for his veristic likeness, with more incision of hair and beard, nearly a decade or more later (Fittschen, 1977, pp. 92-93, no. 35, pl. 41, dated A.D. 250). In the Depot at Aydin (ancient Tralles), the bust of an older man has a noble and forceful face, with parallel grooves in the hair and greater "stippling" in the beard at the face (Inan, Rosenbaum, 1966, p. 175, no. 234, pl. CXXX, figs. 1, 2). A man from Rome, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is likewise older, more emaciated, and represented with greater incision of what stringy hair remains (Richter, 1948, no. 94). Such men are the focal figures on the large sarcophagi marking the transition from earlier Severan styles to the incised verism of the middle of the century, as a head of the A.D. 230s to 240s in Leningrad bears witness (Voshchinina, 1974, p. 191, no. 76, pl. XCVII). The younger contemporary of this man is in the National Museum, Athens, and begins to show the slight shift of the eyes sideways, as characterizes portraiture of the period from the Emperor Maximinus the Thracian through the short reign of the Emperor Traianus Decius (A.D. 235-251) (Catling, 1982, pp. 6-7, fig. 3).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Parke-Bernet Sale, auct. cat. (1949), no. 202
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, An Exhibition of Ancient Sculpture, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), p. 17, no. 56
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, "Observations on Roman Portraiture", Latomus, Revue d'Etudes Latines (Brussels, Belgium, 1953), XI, pp. 13-16, pl. 11, figs. 3-4
  • Bernhard Schweitzer, "Altromische Traditionselemente in der Bildniskunst des dritten nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts", Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 5, C. A. Van Dischoeck (Bussum, 1954), p. 177
  • Art of the Late Antique from American Collections, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (Waltham, MA, 1968), p. 47, no. 5
  • George M. A. Hanfmann and David Gordon Mitten, "The Art of Classical Antiquity", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 362-369, p. 366
  • David Gordon Mitten and Amy Brauer, Dialogue with Antiquity, The Curatorial Achievement of George M. A. Hanfmann, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 15, no. 50
  • Susan Wood, Roman Portrait Sculpture 217-260 AD, The Transformation of an Artistic Tradition, E. J. Brill (Leiden, 1986), p. 55, pl. XIV, fig. 20 (same artist as a bust in Munich).
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 153, no. 140

Exhibition History

  • Art of the Late Antique from American Collections, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, 12/18/1968 - 02/16/1969
  • Dialogue with Antiquity: The Curatorial Achievement of George M.A. Hanfmann, Fogg Art Museum, 05/07/1982 - 06/26/1982
  • Roman Gallery Installation (long-term), Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/16/1999 - 01/20/2008
  • Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/2007 - 01/20/2008
  • 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/23/2019 - 05/13/2019

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu