Portrait bust of Tiberius
- Title:
- Portrait bust of Tiberius
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Gipsformerei (German repository, Berlin, contemporary) (reproduction)
Unknown (original)
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. first half of 1st c. CE
- Site:
- Berlin, Germany (reproduction)
Pozzuoli, Italy (said to have been found there prior to 1842, at which time sold at Naples) (original) - Location:
- 726 University Avenue, Cornell University
Berlin, Germany (reproduction)
Pozzuoli, Italy (said to have been found there prior to 1842, at which time sold at Naples) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0613
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 506
637 incised on back (Gipsformerei inventory number)
612 - File Name:
- CCC_0613.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 64 (H) cm (including bust)
- Culture:
- Roman
- Style/Period:
- Roman Imperial
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Tiberius, Emperor of Rome, 42 B.C.-37 A.D.
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 65.2 x 33 x 30.5 (with pedestal) x 12.2 (without pedestal) (centimeters, height x width x diameter x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of a marble portrait bust of the Roman Emperor Tiberius once held in Berlin but lost in WWII. The portrait type is youthful and may have been created before the death of Tiberius' adoptive father and predecessor, Augustus. His hair is short and arranged into a fork and pincer style at the emperor's broad forehead. His nose is hooked, his lips are thin, and his eyes are almond-shaped and thick-lidded. Hertel argues that the portrait might have been reworked into a Tiberius portrait from a portrait of Caligula. Cast mold seams were not smoothed in production. The original of this portrait bust was said to have been found in Pozzuoli and was purchased in Naples in 1842. The bust was on permanent loan to the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin and was lost when the palace was badly damaged in WWII. As far as is known, it is preserved only in cast form.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. Sk 345 (lost in WWII) - Bibliography:
- Martin Miller, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Dokumentation der Verluste: Antikensammlung, Band V.1 (Berlin, 2005), 42-43.
Dieter Hertel, Die Bildnisse des Tiberius. Das Römische Herrscherbild, I. Abteilung (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2013), 177-178, no. 85, pls. 85, 88.a-b.
Gipsformerei, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Katalog der Originalabgüsse, Heft 4, Griechenland und Rom: Freiplastik, 29, pl. 65, no. 637.
see also catalog entry for 53746: Porträtkopf des Tiberius at http://arachne.uni-koeln.de - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Formerly Berlin, Antikensammlung (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.