by Phedre de Feuillide

Created on: May 03, 2010

The art of portraiture has survived to this very day because of the eternal fascination man has with himself and his desire to both show wealth and status, as well as the hope of achieving a bit of immortality.  While commissioned portraiture in the modern sense did not flourish until the Renaissance, the concept of immortality through the preservation of the self as art is an ancient concept and was common amongst the upper strata of ancient Rome.  What is now thought of as Roman portraiture, like much of Roman culture, has its origins in Greek statues of Olympic athletes and coins bearing the image of rulers and heroes.

Roman portraiture was the most individualized in the classical world and such portraits were used in a variety of ways including ancestor worship and political propaganda.  Statues of senators and important men were also used in such a way to invoke the importance of a family in much the same way as family crests of the Middle Ages.  Portraits were created in marble and bronze and could be simply a bust, as is the case for the majority of female portraits, or a full statue more common in portraits of rulers and politicians.  Lines and wrinkles are shown in the face, receeding hairlines, and non-idealistic features are common.  Portraits of women often depict elaborate hairstyles with hair rolled and coiled.  The Cult of the Ancestor made use of wax masks called imagines which actors or family members would wear during funeral processions.  These masks would then be placed in the home among other portraits of ancestors and be used to display the family line and its distinguished members.

Portraits of emperors tend to be more idealized than those of senators.  The  Augustus of Prima Porta, is the finest and best example of portraiture of a Roman emperor.  This statue shows the idealization of Augustus, who in previous portraits was shown as thin and scholarly with a somewhat large head balanced on a slender neck.  Augustus of Prima Porta echos past heroic Greek statues, turning the previous boyish image of Augustus into the powerful, armor clad ruler usually associated with him by modern man.

It is important to realize that the Roman Empire lasted roughly a thousand years and many styles came and went in that period.  Also of note are the variances in styles within the vastness of the empire.

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