Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.

  • Karl Otfried Müller
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    215/664
    time of Caracalla there were sculptured many statues—espe- cially of Alexander the Macedonian; Alexander Severus also was particularly favourable to statues, in so far as he could regard them as memorials of eminent men. The reliefs on 6 the triumphal arches of Septimius, especially the smaller one, are executed in a mechanical style. 2. Commodus sometimes appears young (Kke a gladiator), sometimes in riper years. On bronze medals we see his bust in youthful form, with athletic body, the crown of laurel and the segis. A fine head in the ca- pitol. Good bust of Pertinax in the Vatican from Velletri, Cardinali Mem. Romane iii. p. 83. Engraved stones, Lippert i, ii, 415. Crispina, Maffei 108. Septimius Severus next to L. Verus most frequently in busts. PioCl. vi, 53 (with Gorgoneion on the breast); from Gabii, in the Louvre 99. Mon. Gab. n. 37. Mongez, pi. 47, 1. 2. The workmanship, however, is still drier than in the Antonines. Bronze statue of Severus, [in the Barbarini palace, now in the Sciarra] Maffei Race. 92, very care- fully executed, especially in the accessories. Excellent busts of Caracalla with an affected expression of rage, at Naples (M. Borbon. iii, 25), in the PioCl. (vi, 65), the Capitol and Louvre (68. Mongez, pi. 49, 1). See l;he Ed. of Winck. vi. s. 383. Comp. the Gem, Lippert i, ii, 430, which is executed with care, but in a spiritless manner. Youthful equestrian sta- tue in the Farnese palace at Rome, Race. 54. Some busts of Heliogaba- lus are valued on account of fine workmanship, at Munich 216, in the Louvre 83. Mongez, pi. 51, 1, 2; PioCl. vi, 56. The short-cropped hair and shaVed beard again came in with Alexander Severus.—Of artists we know Atticus in the time of Commodus, C. I. p. 399, and Xenas by a bust of Clodius Albinus in the Capitol. 3. In the empresses the mode of wearing the hair became more and more absurd; in Julia Domna, Soaemias, Mammsea and Plautilla (the wife of Caracalla) it was evidently perukes, galeri, galericula, sutilia, textilia capillamenta. A head of Lucilla with hair of black marble that could be taken off, Winck. v. s. 51. comp. on similar cases the Ed. s. 360. after Visconti and Bottiger. Fr. Nicolai On the use of false hair and perukes, s. 36. Julia Mammaea in the Capitol, Race. 18. 4. Commodus, according to Lamprid. 9, received statues in the cos- tume of Hercules; some of the kind are still extant. Epigram on this subject in Dio Cass, in Mai's Nova Coll. ii. p. 225. Head of Hercules- Commodus on gems, Lippert i, ii, 410. A beautiful medal exhibits on the one side the bust of Hercules-Commodus, and on the other how he as Hercules founded Rome anew (as a colony of Commodus), according to the Etruscan rite; Here. Rom. Conditori P. M. Tr. P. xviii. Cos. vii. P. P. Eckhel vii. p. 131. comp. p. 122. According to later chronographers Com- modus placed his head on the colossus of Rhodes, which had been re- ereeted by Vespasian or Hadrian; Allatius ad Philon. p. 107. Orelli. Septimius Severus with his two sons (?) as Jupiter, Hercules and Bac- chus, at Luna (Fanti scritti di Carrara), Gius. A. Guattani in the Dissert, dell' Acc. Rom. di Arch. T. i. p. 321. Gallienus also loved to be repre- sented as Sol, and appeared at processions radiatus. Trebell. 16. 18. It was very common at this time to represent the empresses as Venus