Head of Diocletian (?). Egypt (?), about 302-305. Black basalt

The head, broken off at the neck, faces front and gazes fixedly forward. The upper part of the nose and the rim of the right earlobe are missing; a small central section of the back of the head is damaged. Although there is some discoloration, the surface is in excellent condition. The powerful portrait, with its dominating block form, portrays an older man with high domed forehead, contorted brows, large eyes, wide nostrils, sagging cheeks, and turned-down mouth. The closely cropped beard and mustache are indicated by short random strokes of the chisel. The hair is rendered in a similar fashion along the slightly raised sides of the temples and around the back of the head. The top of the head and the forehead have been left unchiseled, but a slightly raised band around the top of the forehead indicates that hair was intended.

This close-cut hairstyle is characteristic of the age of the Tetrarchs, distinguished by the enlarged staring eyes, whose irises are outlined and pupils drilled in three-quarter moon shapes. The brows are pulled into an asymmetrical pattern accented by two vertical furrows; the broad forehead is articulated by three horizontal lines. The surfaces below the eyes and cheeks are sensitively modeled to suggest the soft, fleshy forms of age. Further realistic details of age, seen in profile, are the sagging contour below the chin and rounded roll of flesh at the base of the skull. The head conveys the impression of frozen tension and cruelty, particularly through the brows and mouth.

A number of specific similarities can be found between this head and some of the images of Diocletian on coins and usually accepted portraits in the round. For example, the portrait on a gold medallion in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from the mint at Alexandria, probably struck shortly after his abdication in 305 (Boston, 1972, fig. 81); the portrait of Diocletian in a medallion relief on his Mausoleum at Split (Calza, 1972, no. 11); and one of the pair of porphyry statues of the first four Tetrarchs in the Museo Pio Cristiano, Vatican City (Calza, 1972, no. 9), all share the distinctive downward curve of the mouth, cubic proportions, and sagging cheeks.

The main difference between the Worcester portrait and the above images is the appearance of hair across the forehead. Since the temples and upper forehead, however, are slightly raised in the usual hair convention of the time and the sides chiseled, the man portrayed was not bald. This hair treatment resembles that of a portrait from the Villa Doria Pamphilj, which has been identified as Diocletian (L'Orange, 1929).

Diocletian made a trip to Egypt in 302, celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his reign in Rome in 303, and abdicated in 305. Any of these events would have been appropriate for the special honoring of the emperor by this fine portrait. It seems unlikely that we have a postabdication portrait of Diocletian or one of a private individual in basalt.

bibliography: Teitz, 1975.