Head of Constantius I Chlorus. Egypt, about 305-306. Porphyry

This head is broken off irregularly at the neck; a large chip has broken off the upper left top of the head, another off the back of the head; other chips from left eyebrow, front of nose, upper lip and chin, and right ear; apparently willful chiseling of both eyeballs has erased all trace of pupils. Head was apparently turned slightly to its left; it is abnormally shallow from front to back, and modeled with great simplicity in brownish purple porphyry quarried at the Mons Porphyrites in Egypt's Eastern Desert.

The frontal view displays an oval contour, typical, according to L'Orange (1933, pp. 60-61), of the Second Tetrarchy in contrast to the rectangular stereometry of the First (cf. Diocletian, no. 3). The caplike hair and beard are indicated by short, parallel strokes of the chisel; the eyes are enlarged and staring, their gaze emphasized by the linear organization of the circular lids and arched brows. The right eye is slightly lower than the left, and in other ways the face avoids exact symmetry. The nose gives evidence, despite its damage, of having been hooked.

In scale, the work must be imperial; by style, it is Tetrarchal. Among the rulers of the two Tetrarchies, the only ones with hooked noses, as Haynes (1976) notes, are Constantine the Great and his father Constantius Chlorus. While the son's likeness is fairly well established (cf. nos. 9-11), that of Constantius is more difficult to define (cf. Calza, 1972, nos. 65-79), but tall, narrow heads like this one are common to many images said to portray these men.

This portrait bears a strong resemblance in full face to a marble one in Leiden (cf. von Sydow, 1969, pp. 117-119, 140-141), which in turn is quite similar to a porphyry head found in the Antioch excavations, already identified by Brinkerhoff (1970, pp. 19-28) with Constantius Chlorus. The Antioch head has a somewhat less oval outline and may be earlier than the others; these probably portray Constantius during his brief tenure as Augustus in the Second Tetrarchy.

While an Egyptian origin is assured by the type of stone used, the find-site of the head is unknown. It was in a private collection in Switzerland for some years before its acquisition by the British Museum.