Caracalla took the official name of M. Aurelius Antoninus Pius as part of the Severan dynasty’s attempt to appear as the legitimate and worthy successors of the secondcentury Antonine emperors. Despite this, in his official portraiture, he abandoned the luxuriant hair and beard of his predecessors for a military style characterized by closely cropped curls and a stubble beard. An ancient source records that on his deathbed, his father Septimius Severus advised Caracalla to “enrich the soldiers and despise everyone else.” This finely carved head is a powerful rendering of the official portrait and was probably produced at an imperial
workshop, since the statue fragments are said to have been found in Rome. It is from a statue, the legs of which also survive and are displayed in the Study Collection on the Mezzanine Floor.

Said to be from Rome

Acquired January 15, 1940, purchased from H.P. L'Orange, Oslo.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1940. "A Portrait of Caracalla." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 35 (7): pp. 139-42, figs. 1-2.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1940. "Notes: A Roman Ringstone." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 35(11): p. 229.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1940. "A Rearrangement of Roman Portraits." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 35(10): p. 202.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1940. "A Roman Ringstone." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 35(11): p. 229.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1940. "Four Notable Acquisitions of The Metropolitan Museum of Art." American Journal of Archaeology 44 (October-December): 439-42, figs. 13-18.

Altheìm, F. 1943. Die Krise der alten Welt im 3. Jahrhundert n. zw. und ihre Ursachen. Vol. 3. Berlin: Ahnenerbe-Stiftung, p. 84, pls. 74, 75.

Hill, D.K. 1944. "Some Late Antique Portraits." American Journal of Archaeology 48: 263, n. 9.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1948. Roman Portraits. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 107, ill. on front cover.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3: pp. 82, 84, fig. 21.

Bergmann, M. 1977. Studien zum römischen Porträt des 3. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. Bonn: Habelt, p. 12, n. 14, p. 202.

Vermeule, C.C., III. 1977. "Commodus, Caracalla and the Tetrarchs: Roman Emperors as Hercules." In Festschrift für Frank Brommer, edited by U. Höckmann and A. Krug. Mainz: P. von Zabern, p. 293, n. 17.

Wood, S. 1981. "Subject and Artist: Studies in Roman Portraiture of the Third Century." American Journal of Archaeology 85: 65, n. 37, pl. 14, fig. 4.

Wood, S. 1982. "The Bust of Philip the Arab in the Vatican: A Case for the Defense." American Journal of Archaeology 86: 245ff., pl. 40, fig. 4.

Salzmann, D. 1983. "Die Bildnisse des Macrinus." Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 98: 369, n. 88, fig. 24.

Wood, S. 1986. Roman Portrait Sculpture, 217-260 A.D.: The Transformation of an Artistic Tradition. Leiden: Brill, pp. 29, n. 16, 30, fig. 2.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 109, pp. 141-42.

Kleiner, D.E.E. 1992. Roman Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 324, fig. 286.

Oliver, A. 1996. "Honors to Romans: Bronze Portraits." In Mattusch, C.C., et al., The Fire of Hephaistos: Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, p. 150.

Kleiner, D.E.E. 2000. "Family Ties: Mothers and Sons in Elite and non-Elite Roman Art." In I Claudia II: Women in Roman Art and Society, Kleiner, D.E.E. and Matheson, S.B., eds. Austin: University of Texas Press, p. 53.

Picón, Carlos A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 454, pp. 389, 494.