Advanced Search 
View: Front
Bust of a man
Roman
Imperial Period
31 B.C.–14 A.D.
Medium/Technique
Marble, from Mt. Pentelikon near Athens
Dimensions
Height: 34.5 cm (13 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Catharine Page Perkins Fund
Accession Number96.699
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 340; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 114 (additional published references).
DescriptionPortrait bust of a man. The bust includes the upper portion of the shoulders and chest. The face is rectangular in shape with a weak jawline. The chin is small and recessed, set behind the lower lips. There are signs of age: light wrinkles on the forehead and sunken cheeks. His eyes are almond-shaped with thick lids. They are set beneath a heavy browline. The bridge of his nose is narrow and it ends in a bulbous tip. He has a wide mouth with thick lips. His hair is worn short and conforms to the shape of his skull. It is made up of comma-shaped locks that are brushed forward from the crown of the head. The hairline over his forehead is sharp and raised prominently above the skin. He has large ears that jut out from the sides of his head.
The neck is broken into four pieces and repaired without restoration, resulting in slight breaks on the right side and a small hole on the left. There are small chips in the stone on the right cheek. The tip of the left ear is missing, and there are patches of incrustation on the left side from the hair down the left side of the face - covering parts of the temple, cheek, and chin - and neck to the edge of the bust.
The neck is broken into four pieces and repaired without restoration, resulting in slight breaks on the right side and a small hole on the left. There are small chips in the stone on the right cheek. The tip of the left ear is missing, and there are patches of incrustation on the left side from the hair down the left side of the face - covering parts of the temple, cheek, and chin - and neck to the edge of the bust.
ProvenanceFebruary 27, 1894, excavated by Massimiliano Pirani from a site near the Via Flaminia, not far from the Casale di Grottarossa, Rome [see note 1]. By 1896, purchased on the art market, Rome, by Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 – d. 1928), London [see note 2]; October, 1896, sold by Warren to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 1, 1896)
NOTES:
[1] See Rodolfo Amadeo Lanciani, Storia degli scavi di Roma e notizie intorno le collezioni romane, vol. 1 (1902), p. 28; and Andrea Venier, "I Mosaici ritrovati nell'800 sulla via Flaminia ed esposti in America," available online at http://www.vignaclarablog.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/i-mosaici-ritrovati-sulla-via-flaminia.pdf, who identifies the MFA bust as a portrait of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo. This was one of eleven marble heads that were found at that time.
[2] According to Warren’s records, this was found in the area of the the Prima Porta near Rome. When it was on the art market, it was photographed. For further information see M. B. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: the Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1976), p. 215, no. 340.
NOTES:
[1] See Rodolfo Amadeo Lanciani, Storia degli scavi di Roma e notizie intorno le collezioni romane, vol. 1 (1902), p. 28; and Andrea Venier, "I Mosaici ritrovati nell'800 sulla via Flaminia ed esposti in America," available online at http://www.vignaclarablog.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/i-mosaici-ritrovati-sulla-via-flaminia.pdf, who identifies the MFA bust as a portrait of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo. This was one of eleven marble heads that were found at that time.
[2] According to Warren’s records, this was found in the area of the the Prima Porta near Rome. When it was on the art market, it was photographed. For further information see M. B. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: the Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1976), p. 215, no. 340.