Small-scale busts of the emperor like this one were suitable for display in the household shrine of a Roman dwelling, along with images of the family’s ancestors and patron gods.
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Title:Bronze portrait bust of the emperor Gaius (Caligula)
Period:Early Imperial, Julio-Claudian
Date:ca. 37–41 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:H. 9 13/16 in. (25 cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1923
Object Number:23.160.23
Until 1923, collection of Ludwig and Frida Mond, London; acquired in 1923, purchased from Mrs. Mond.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1924. "Greek and Roman Bronzes: Recent Acquisitions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19(3): pp. 70–71, fig. 6.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 294, 296, fig. 207, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1929. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks. p. 112, fig. 451, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 294, 296, fig. 207, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1936. Roman Art, A Picture Book. fig. 18, 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. 18, p. 4, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1948. Roman Portraits, 2nd edn. no. 39, p. iii, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Krumme, Michael. 1980. "Eine gewichtsbuste in der Munchner Antikensammlungen." Hefte des Archäologischen Seminars der Universität Bern, Vol. 6. Bern: Institut für Klassische Archäologie der Universität Bern.
Varner, Eric R. 2000. From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture no. 7, pp. 102–3, 105, Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.
Dahmen, Karsten. 2001. Untersuchungen zu Form und Funktion kleinformatiger Porträts der römischen Kaiserzeit. no. 43, p. 158, pl. 43, Münster: Scriptorium.
Zanker, Paul. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 22, pp. 77–78, 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. 151, pp. 304–5, New York: Scala Publishers.
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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.