Reading a Roman Portrait

Roman portraiture portrays the values of the era that it is produced in. During the end of the Republican era the pieces are of older men, wrinkled and lined-not hiding their age. With age comes wisdom, in the Republican era wisdom was a valued virtue and therefore was depicted. With the era of Augustus came a new sort of portraiture. Augustus was the first emperor and therefore needed to preserve his youth and grandeur even into old age. This is why the face of Augustus never changes although his body and clothing might. Augustus needed to revive the hope of the people and showing a decrepit, wrinkled old man would not have solidified the role of emperor as god. Roman portraiture is a tool to represent the values of the era and had uses both as a reminder of the individual, but also as a political or religious tool.
The piece I selected is a portrait of a man named Antinous and was found in the Da Villa Andriana somewhere around 117-138 d.C. The portrait appears to be made out of marble, but was at one time painted because you can see specks of a golden color coating the portrait. The portrait is of the face of a man. He appears to be young because his face is unlined and his hair consists of loosely arranged curls on the top of his head. His face is very proportionate-almost a little too perfect at first glance. His eyes are spaced evenly apart, his eyebrows are shaped perfectly, his nose is a little large, but not disproportionate to his face, his mouth is in a resting position, and his face is framed by perfectly placed, untidy, curly hair.
The bust does not appear to have use as a political or religious tool. The sculpture is of a young man, in his late teens or early twenties. His face is unlined and his hairstyle is playful, which suggests his younger age. The most interesting aspect of this piece is that although his face at first appears expressionless the more one looks the more one can read into the emotions of the portrait. He has an air of concern or confusion, but at the same time and incredible innocence, beauty and youthfulness. At first glance he appears stern, I imagine his sternness acts as a mask of his true emotions. The more the viewer looks the softer his features become and a humanness appears. His face is smooth and unwrinkled, but the strange depiction of his mouth, lifeless and yet at the same time smirking and almost tensing in fear, gives a new dimension to his otherwise serene face. His mouth acts as the conveyor of many emotions.
The portrait is youthful and yet at the same time the viewer feels there is some great event about to occur in his life. His hair gives him a roughish, adventurous look, as though he is preparing for something, but what the viewer is not sure. His face seems scared, as though this portrait was being taken before a great event in his life-a marriage or perhaps before he went off to battle. He has two defining features that help to bring life to his portrait. First, his hair gives him his youthful, adventurous appearance. Second, the shape of his mouth is the feature that gives his portrait the most depth. These two features are unique when I contrasted him with other portraitures in the room.
As I walked around the museum I saw either portraits that were of older men, gods, or athletes. The portrait I chose had none of these characteristics. He was set apart in his room by his youth and beauty. None in the room of portraits could rival his curling locks. I was drawn to the uniqueness of his portrait and captivated by the depth of emotions that could be found on his placid face. This piece fascinated me because it seemed that for a face that looked so young and uncomplicated, so many different interpretations of his mood could be concluded.
I imagine this portrait would have been commissioned for a household. Because he is so young it seems to be commemorating a specific important event in this man’s life. This is why I thought that it might have been made before he went off to war or before he married. It seemed that both of these events might cause a mother to want a portrait of her son. I also do not think that this young man is old enough to hold an official position that might warrant his portraiture being sculpted. This also leads to my conclusion that it does not have a religious or political motive.
In Nodelman’s article he discusses the idea of Roman sculptures as aware of their viewer: “the formalized gestures and self-consciously assumed attitude of a Roman portrait statue, and the equally self-conscious composed, or constrained emotion of a Roman face, reflect an acute awareness of the spectator.” Although my portrait lacks age lines and the serious, angry face of the end of the Republican era, my portrait appears to be aware of his viewer. The lack of detail in his face, in fact, causes the viewer to look more closely, to become intimate with the portrait in order to find more depth to the piece. Nodelman’s theory that Roman sculptures were modeled to engage and also be aware of the viewer seems apparent in the bust I choose. Antinous appears as though he knows he is being watched and the sculpture seemed aware of the ways to engage the viewer.
This piece is unique because as I looked at it I felt more and more engaged by the piece. The image reminded me of the pangs of confusion of youth and the transition from youth to adult. There was a sense of irony and contrast in the image. The bust was made of marble, solid and unchanging, and yet the depiction of the boy was of a period of transition and change.