Catalogue entry no. 77 by William W. Robinson:
Head of Nero was the model for an engraving by Paulus Pontius published in 1638 in a set of twelve plates that depict herms and busts of famous Greek and Roman men (Fig. 1). The series reproduced “antique sculptures of certified portraits” in order to establish a reliable iconography of a dozen illustrious figures of the ancient world. A text engraved beneath each image credits Rubens with drawing the model ex marmore antiquo (from an antique marble). However, the bust represented in the Harvard work was probably not ancient, but a Renaissance forgery based on numismatic portraits of Nero, and the attribution of the drawing to Rubens must be qualified.
The models for the heads of Nero, Brutus, and Seneca in the series were delineated in brown ink over black chalk with profuse curved, parallel, and cross-hatched strokes. The systematic pen work of these studies bears little resemblance to the technique of secure drawings by Rubens from the 1630s, and some authorities have proposed that it is not by him, but by an assistant charged with completing the image over the master’s black-chalk sketch. Examination of the Harvard sheet with infrared light has confirmed this division of labor, revealing the integral and specific underdrawing that guided the unidentified draftsman who elaborated Rubens’s design (Fig. 2). Not only does the robust chalk sketch define the contours and most details, but the vitalization of the inert facial features of the marble original, an imaginative intervention only Rubens could contribute, is clearly articulated. A different artist executed all the pen work, using the same ink throughout the finished state of the drawing. The engraved text P. P. Rubens delineavit (P. P. Rubens drew it) on the prints thus refers to his invention of the image and supervision of its completion, but does not certify that the model is entirely by his hand.
Pierre-Jean Mariette, who saw the Harvard work and the model for the engraving Bust of Seneca in the fabled collection of Pierre Crozat (died 1740), quipped that they were “hardly or not at all [drawn] in the antique manner.” Mariette did not suspect that an assistant executed the pen work, but he rightly perceived that Rubens and his collaborator altered the marmoreal aspect of the originals by imparting a lifelike vitality to the eyes and hair and a palpable, fleshy sensuality to Nero’s cheeks and lips. This evidently ran counter to his belief that an antiquarian image should replicate the appearance and style of the artifact.
The pen work of the drawing follows the underlying sketch in black chalk, except for an adjustment to the proper right ear, which was shifted higher and to the left, and a shortening of the lock of hair below it (Fig. 3). Minor revisions took place as the artist elaborated the image in brown ink. After extending the socle at the left, he partially shaded over the addition. To the right, three strokes embedded in the cross-hatched shadow prefigure the form given to the base in the print: two right-angled lines indicate the extension of the lower tier, and a short arc suggests the curve and taper of the upper level. Globules of pooled ink on the iris and brow of Nero’s proper left eye and between the eye and nose were partially scratched out to lighten excessively opaque accents. Pontius added the niche, but otherwise reproduced the drawing accurately and in reverse, although the model was not incised for transfer to the engraving plate. Having delegated the completion of the drawing to an assistant, Rubens intervened again on a proof of the print, using oil paint to enhance the light–dark contrasts, delete the proper left ear, and reduce the hair on the back of the head. Pontius made these revisions in the published state (see Fig. 1).
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