| classical |
 Head of a bearded man 150 - 200 A.D. This head of a man is a fine example of the psychologically sophisticated portraiture of the Antonine to early Severan period when Rome was still great, but the imperial house was troubled, and the barbarians are beginning to threaten the borders of the empire. The hair is very finely carved with discrete use of the running drill to separate locks, and much attention paid to each bit of the beard and front part of the hair. The hair in the back is much more sketchily carved, in a way typical of the economy of the ancient sculptors. The face has been repolished in modern times, but not recarved, and in the way the eyes look to one side gives a far away look to it, which with the slightly furrowed brow gives the impression of a man in deep thought, and a little worried. The nose is a restoration from the 18th Century, and is somehow off in its proportion, but it works and was retained to keep from having the eye focus on the gap that would be there, rather than the beauty of the head itself. For the head is a beautiful portrait, finely and well carved with a very sympathetic feeling to it, as the best of Roman portraiture has.   |