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.
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Title:Marble portrait of the emperor Caracalla
Period:Severan
Date:212–217 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Marble
Dimensions:H. 14 1/4 in. ( 36.2 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Samuel D. Lee Fund, 1940
Accession Number:40.11.1a
Said to be from Rome
Until 1940, collection of Hans Peter L’Orange, Oslo; acquired in 1940, purchased from Hans Peter L’Orange, Oslo.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
