Ivory portrait head of the emperor Augustus

Roman

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 166


Like full-scale statues of the emperor commissioned for public and private settings, small-scale figures
in a variety of materials were broadly disseminated in the Roman world. Areas of white pigment indicate that this head was once painted. The body may have been carved in a colored stone, perhaps similar to the jasper statuette on display nearby. An opulent and costly material, ivory held divine associations, possibly referencing Greek chryselephantine (ivory and gold) sculpture, such as the famous statue of Zeus at Olympia.

Ivory portrait head of the emperor Augustus, Ivory, Roman

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