The portrait style created for Augustus was adopted by his family and immediate successors in order to stress the unity and continuity of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. This fine bust of Caligula (r. A.D. 37– 41) has regular features and carefully designed locks of hair similar to those in portraits of Augustus. Here, however, the artist has also conveyed something of Caligula’s vanity and cruelty in the proud turn of the head and the thin, pursed lips.
#1094. Marble portrait bust of the emperor Gaius, known as Caligula
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Visible-induced infrared luminescence image, showing Egyptian blue pigment on lower reverse of bust. Image: Mark Abbe
Artwork Details
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Title:Marble portrait bust of the emperor Gaius, known as Caligula
Period:Early Imperial, Julio-Claudian
Date:37–41 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Marble
Dimensions:H. 20 in. (50.8 cm) length 7 1/16 in. (18 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1914
Object Number:14.37
Said to have been found near Marino, Lago Albano (Poulsen 1921, p. 67)
[Until 1914, with Alfredo Barsanti, Rome]; acquired in 1914, purchased from A. Barsanti.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1914. "Department of Classical Art: Accessions of 1913." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9(3): pp. 60–61, figs. 2–3.
Bates, William N. 1914. "Archaeological News." American Journal of Archaeology, 18(3): p. 415, fig. 5.
Worcester Art Museum. 1914. "Recent Acquisitions in Sculpture." Bulletin of the Worcester Art Museum, 3: pp. 5–6, 12.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 247, fig. 151, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Poulsen, Frederik. 1921. Ikonographische Miscellen, Historisk-filosofiske Meddelelser IV, 1. pp. 67–68, pls. 26–28, Copenhagen: Bianco Lunos Bogtrykkeri.
Poulsen, Frederik. 1923. "Un portrait de Caligula récemment acquis par la Glyptothèque de Ny-Carlsberg." Revue Archéologique, 17: pp. 226, 228–29.
Johnson, Franklin P. 1926. "The Imperial Portraits at Corinth." American Journal of Archaeology, 30(2): p. 162.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 293, 295, fig. 206, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 293, 295, fig. 206, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1940. "A Rearrangement of Roman Portraits." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 35(10): p. 201.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1941. Roman Portraits, Vol. 1. no. 20, p. 4, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1948. Roman Portraits, 2nd edn. no. 36, p. iii, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Poulsen, Frederik. 1957. "Caligulas billede." Meddelelser fra Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 14: no. II,1, pp. 40–42, 46–47, fig. 9.
1958. "Portraits of Caligula." Acta Archaeologica, 29: no. II,1, pp. 186–87.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1970. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. p. 415, fig. 5, New York: Dutton.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1978. Antichnoe iskusstvo iz muzeia Metropoliten, Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki: Katalog vystavki. no. 95, Moscow: Sovetskii Khudozhnik.
Milleker, Elizabeth J. 2000. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West no. 14, pp. 34, 205, New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 413, pp. 358, 486, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. p. 77, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 21, pp. 57, 74–76, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 153, pp. 304, 306–7, New York: Scala Publishers.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. pp. 033, 277, New York: Phaidon Press.
Hemingway, Seán and Sarah Lepinski. 2025. "Chroma : Ancient Sculpture in Color and Anceint Polychromy at The Met." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. p.42, n. 51, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Archaeologists Vinzenz and Ulrike Koch Brinkmann reflect on how reconstructing the former color of an ancient Roman bust can help us better understand history.
Curator Christopher S. Lightfoot welcomes a bust of Roman Emperor Domitian to the Met as part of a one-year loan exchange with The Toledo Museum of Art.
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