1000 Portraits of Genius. Victoria Charles
degli Uffizi, Florence.
94. Portrait Head, old palaestra, Delos, Greek, late Hellenistic style, c. 80 B.C.E. Bronze, height: 32.4 cm. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
95. Portrait Head of Cleopatra VII, Roman, c. 31 B.C.E. Marble, height: 29.5 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Antikensammlung, Berlin.
This was the regular name of the queens of Egypt in the Ptolemaic dynasty after Cleopatra, daughter of the Seleucid Antiochus the Great, wife of Ptolemy V. The best known was the daughter of Ptolemy Dionysus, whose wife, in accordance with Egyptian custom, she was to become. A few years afterwards, deprived of all royal authority, she withdrew into Syria, and made preparation to recover her rights by force of arms. At this juncture Julius Caesar followed Pompey into Egypt. The personal fascinations of Cleopatra induced Caesar to undertake a war on her behalf, in which Ptolemy lost his life, and she was replaced on the throne in conjunction with a younger brother, who she would soon allegedly kill by poison. In Rome she lived openly with Caesar as his mistress until his assassination, when, aware of her unpopularity, she returned at once to Egypt. Subsequently she became the ally and mistress of Mark Antony. Their connection was highly unpopular at Rome, and Octavian declared war upon them and defeated them at Actium (32 B.C.E.). Cleopatra escaped to Alexandria, where Antony joined her. There are many versions told of the demise of Antony and Cleopatra. One tells that, having no prospect of ultimate success, she accepted the proposal of Octavian that she should assassinate Antony, and enticed him to join her in a mausoleum which she had built in order “that they might die together.” Antony committed suicide in the mistaken belief that she had already done so, but Octavian refused to yield to the charms of Cleopatra, who put an end to her life by applying an asp to her bosom, according to the common tradition, in her thirty-ninth year (August 29, 30 B.C.E.). With her ended the dynasty of the Ptolemies, and Egypt was made a Roman province. Cleopatra had three children by Antony, and by Julius Caesar, as some say, a son, called Caesarion, who was put to death by Octavian. In her the type of queen characteristic of the Macedonian dynasties stands in the most brilliant light. Imperious will, masculine boldness, relentless ambition like hers had been exhibited by queens of her race since the old Macedonian days before Philip and Alexander. But the last Cleopatra had perhaps some special intellectual endowment. She surprised her generation by being able to speak the many tongues of her subjects. There may have been an individual quality in her luxurious profligacy, but then her predecessors had not had the Roman lords of the world for wooers.
96. Grave Relief of Aiedius and His Wife, Roman, 30 B.C.E. Marble, 64 × 99 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Pergamon Museum, Berlin.
97. Portrait of Julius Caesar, Roman, c. 30–20 B.C.E. Marble, 56 × 19 × 26 cm. Vatican Museums, Vatican City.
Julius Caesar began his political leadership as the head of the traditionally Republican government of Rome, but ended it as a murdered dictator. Caesar had taken control over the vast empire of Rome, eschewing the practice of sharing power with the Senate. He was both revered for his strong leadership and resented for his tyranny. It was that resentment that led to his assassination on the fifth of March, 44 B.C.E. This portrait expresses not only Caesar’s likeness, but also his character. We sense his strength, intelligence and nobility. The bust follows the Republican tradition of veristic portraiture.
98. Augustus as Pontifex Maximus (High Priest), Via Labicana, Rome, Roman, Imperial style, after 12 B.C.E. Marble, height: 200 cm. Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.
99. Portrait of Octavian, Roman, Imperial style, 35–29 B.C.E. Marble, height: 74 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome.
Octavian, better known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, inherited the title of emperor after Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C.E. He later joined forces with the infamous Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in a military dictatorship also known as the Second Triumvirate. During this period, he ruled Rome and many of its provinces. The group was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its rulers. Octavian later completely restored the outward façade of the Roman Republic by investing the power in the Roman Senate and no longer ruling Rome as a emperorship, which in the end allotted him the name “Augustus”, meaning “The Revered One.”
100. Augustus of Prima Porta, Villa ad Gallinas which belonged to Livia, Rome, 14 C.E. copy of a Roman bronze, Imperial style, 20 B.C.E. Marble, height: 204 cm. Vatican Museums, Vatican City.
Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, transformed the way art and image were used by the Romans. He rejected the “veristic” style of Roman portraiture, preferring instead to emulate the High Classical style of fifth-century Greece. In this portrait, found at the villa of his wife Livia at Prima Porta, Augustus is shown in a pose that directly quotes Polykleitos’ Doryphoros, the best-known statue of the fifth century. In doing so, Augustus called upon all the associations the High Classical period carried: empire and power, but also democracy. Augustus was trying to appease those who might resent his absolute rule and the end of the Republic. He was at once advertising his strength, and also his role as a fair, democratic leader who would represent the senate and the people of Rome.
101. Heracles (detail of the Abduction of Dejanire), Sacellum des Augustales, Herculaneum, Roman, Fourth Pompeian style (20–79 C.E.). Fresco. In situ.
102. Nymph, detail of a scene depicting the death of Icarus, Pompeii, Imperial Villa, Room A, Roman, Fourth Pompeian style (20–79 C.E.), 62–79 C.E. Fresco. In situ.
103. Portrait of Gaius Julius Caesar or The Green Cesar, Roman Egypt, beginning of the 1st century C.E. Basanite (marmoreal eyes inlays are modern), height: 41 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Altes Museum, Antikensammlung, Berlin.
104. Portrait Head of a Young Man, Roman, Imperial style, middle of the 1st century C.E. Marble, height: 28 cm. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
105. Head of a Colossal Statue of Augustus, Roman, Imperial style, posthumous portrait, 41–54 C.E. Marble. Vatican Museums, Chiaramonti Museum, Vatican City.
106. Relief from the Tomb of a Family of Roman Freed Men and Women, Roman, 1st Century C.E. Marble, 74 × 185 × 30 cm. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
107. Colossal Head of Tiberius, Veii, Roman, Imperial style, posthumous portrait, 41–54 C.E. Marble. Vatican Museums, Museum Chiaramonti, Vatican City.
108. Mummy Portrait of a Young Man, Hawara, Egypt, Roman, c. 70-12 °C.E. Encaustic on cedar wood, 38.3 × 22.8 cm. The British Museum, London.
109. Mummy Portrait of a Woman, Hawara, Egypt, Roman, c. 55–7 °C.E. Encaustic on cedar wood, 41.6 × 21.5 cm. The British Museum, London.
110. The Child, Fayum, c. 1st-2nd century C.E. Encaustic on wood, 35.5 × 16.5 cm. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
111. Female Theatre Mask, Casa del Bracciale d’Oro, Pompeii, Roman, Third Pompeian style, before 6 °C.E. Fresco. In situ.
The murals discovered in the ancient cities around the Bay of Naples, notably Pompeii and Herculaneum, were found after extensive excavations in the eighteenth century by the architect