Roman Marble Work

When the management of the national roman museum received a bulky package sent from overseas they were not expecting to find inside a fragment of ancient marble inscribed with the message.

Roman marble work.

A marble head reddish brown in color partially covered with thick concretions. The sleeping hermaphroditus is an ancient marble sculpture depicting hermaphroditus life size. The roman marble relief above which was sold by christie s in 2019 depicts the mythological twin half brothers castor and pollux. Roman marble bust of a citizen.

Soon educated and wealthy romans desired works of art that evoked greek culture. Hammer and point work is the technique used in working stone in use at least since roman times as it is described in the legend of pygmalion and even earlier the ancient greek sculptors used it from c. The neck is broken at the midpoint so that one is not able determine if the head was sculpted to be inserted or if it was carved with a bust or as part of a whole statue. Impressed by the wealth culture and beauty of the greek cities victorious generals returned to rome with booty that included works of art in all media.

The 90 works from the torlonia collection were opening monday in the newly refurbished villa caffarelli one of the capitoline museum s exhibition spaces overlooking the ancient roman forum. In 1620 italian artist gian lorenzo bernini sculpted the mattress upon which the statue now lies. To meet this demand greek and roman artists created marble and bronze copies of the famous greek statues. Castor was the mortal son of tyndareus king of sparta while pollux was the divine son of zeus who had seduced their mother leda in the guise of a swan.

It represents a subject that was much repeated in hellenistic times and in ancient rome to judge from the number of. The bone structure of the head and the contours of the jaw are easily seen in this work and the expression is austere suggesting a. These works usually made in marble or bronze frequently idealized their bodies and emphasized often fictional connections to great military commanders of the past. Portraits or busts and marble copies of greek bronzes.

However this bust belonged to a roman citizen identity. Around the eyes and of the forehead seem to resemble images of the emperor caracalla. Clean breaks at the nose the chin and the ears. The form is partly derived from ancient portrayals of venus and other female nudes and partly from contemporaneous feminised hellenistic portrayals of dionysus bacchus.

Ancient roman sculptors are predominantly known for two types of marble sculptures. Starting with augustus the first emperor roman leaders started to use statues as propaganda. Roman marble head of a citizen. Winged victory of samothrace hellenistic marble sculpture of the 3rd century bc.