Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Important bust depicting the Emperor Augustus* in white Carrara marble for the head and
yellow Siena marble for the breastplate.
The man who was the adopted son of Julius Caesar is represented here according to the
iconography of the "Augustus de Prima Porta", a monumental statue discovered in Rome
on 23 April 1863 in the "Villa Livia" which belonged to the emperor's third wife. In this
gigantic villa, which the Romans called "Ad Galinas Albas" at the time, archaeologists will
discover an incredible luxury of frescoes and mosaics. But the real treasure remains the
famous two-meter statue that is now kept in the Vatican Museum.
Augustus is represented standing in a "contrapposto" with his arm outstretched towards
the crowd, like an orator making an "adlocutio" to his troops.
The pose is largely inspired by the Doryphoros by the Greek sculptor Polykleitus. The
emperor wears the "paludamentum", a kind of cloak that floats over his cuirass.
The latter is decorated with two sphinxes on the shoulder straps and allegories on the
breastplate, including the sunrise, Mother Earth and the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. The
statue is an attempt to glorify the emperor and remains one of the finest examples of
Roman statuary known to this day.
Our sculpture takes up the bust of the statue, with the head and the upper half of the
breastplate of the breastplate.
The Portor marble pedestal.
Very good state of preservation.
Roman work circa 1865-1870.
Size: Height: 85 cm; Width: 57 cm
*Augustus - Gaius Octavius Thurinus, Octavian, later called Octavian, was born on
September 23, 63 BC in Rome (Italy) and died on August 19, 14 AD in Nola (Italy).
Julius Caesar having taken him under his wing, after the latter's death, he was in conflict
with Mark Antony over the succession. After many struggles and alliances, he finally
became the first Roman emperor, under the name Augustus, on January 16, 27 BC.
While maintaining the republican regime, he established a principate and subtly increased
his powers to the point of acquiring absolute authority.
Upon his death in 14 AD, Emperor Augustus was honored as a God. He was the founder
of the Roman Empire (27 BC). The adopted son of Julius Caesar, he ended the civil war,
organized the administration of the Roman provinces, and fostered religious and artistic
development in Rome.
His reign, the most brilliant in Roman history, would be called the "Age of Augustus".
Our opinion:
The bust we are presenting is the work of a very good sculptor who worked in Rome in the
middle of the nineteenth century.
Unlike many busts of Roman emperors, this is a real sculptor's work, probably
commissioned during the excitement caused by the discovery of the statue in 1863.
The finesse of the details of the face or the decoration of the breastplate, with its sphinxes
and its chariot of the sun, perfectly illustrate the talent of our artist.
The polishing of the face, with very accentuated glosses and mattes, is also particularly
successful.
The choice of a yellow Sienna marble for the cuirass probably stems from the desire to pair
our bust with the bust of Vitellius that we are presenting and which predates it by a few
decades.
