Gaius, more commonly known by his ancient nickname Caligula (Little Boots), was the first emperor to be assassinated. His uncle and successor, Claudius, had his statues and portraits removed from public view. Many were reworked as portraits of Augustus or of Claudius. It also seems that smaller, personal images of Caligula were deliberately thrown away after his murder; several have been recovered from the River Tiber in Rome.
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Title:Bronze portrait head of the emperor Gaius (Caligula)
Period:Early Imperial, Julio-Claudian
Date:ca. 37–41 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:H. 2 11/16 in. (6.8 cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1925
Accession Number:25.78.35
Until 1910, collection of Count Grigoriy Sergeyevich Stroganov, Palazzo Stroganov, Rome; from 1910 and until 1920, with his descendants, Palazzo Stroganov, Rome; [ca. 1920-23, purchased by Giorgio Sangiorgi, Rome]; [until 1925, with G. Sangiorgi, Rome]; acquired in 1925, purchased from G. Sangiorgi.
Pollak, Ludwig and Antonio Muñoz. 1911. Pièces de choix de la collection du comte Grégoire Stroganoff à Rome. p. 28, pl. XXV.2, Rome: Impr. de l'Unione editrice.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. "Recent Accessions in the Classical Department: Vases and Bronzes." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22(1): pp. 20–21, fig. 9.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1941. Roman Portraits, Vol. 1. no. 19, p. 4, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1948. Roman Portraits, 2nd edn. no. 40, p. iii, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Musée & Galerie des Beaux-Arts. 1981. Profil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York : de Ramsès à Picasso. no. 54, p. 60, Paris: Musée & Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux.
Varner, Eric R. 2000. From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture no. 8, pp. 102–3, 106, Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.
Varner, Eric R. 2000. From Caligula to Constantine : Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture no. 8, pp. 102–3, Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.
Dahmen, Karsten. 2001. Untersuchungen zu Form und Funktion kleinformatiger Porträts der römischen Kaiserzeit. no. 44, pl. 44, V, Münster: Scriptorium.
Zanker, Paul. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 23, p. 79, 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. 152, pp. 304, 306, 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.
