Head of Constans. Eastern Empire, about 337-340. Marble

Though the head has sustained numerous minor losses, including tip of nose, and parts of lips, ears, and diadem, it is largely intact. In some areas traces of red color are preserved, as at corners of mouth and on diadem. The head was made for insertion in a statue, perhaps mantled. The back and top of the head are very summarily worked. A young emperor is portrayed, looking out with straightforward, calm gaze under arched, lightly carved eyebrows. The pupils and irises are incised; the hair is combed forward from under diadem with double row of pearls; locks of hair are distinguished by delicate striations. The modeling is soft and naturalistic.

The coiffure and diadem—of the type inaugurated by Constantine in about 325—place the subject within Constantine's family, while the particular features and introspective gaze seem closest to the likeness of his youngest son, Constans (Delbrueck, 1933). While most of Constans' portraits are fuller of face (e.g., Louvre [Calza, 1972, no. 234]), the essential traits of this portrait are similar and distinctive within the group; the subject here is younger, perhaps shown at about the time of his accession in 337, when he was at most seventeen years old.

The style is characteristic of the last phase of Constantinian classicism, when models were no longer being sought in the stern Augustan- Trajanic tradition, but in the more subtly modeled, emotional style of the Antonines. The lower part of the face shows this subtlety, particularly in the undulations of the mouth; there is a similar treatment of surfaces on a head, probably of the youthful Constantius II, acquired in Aleppo and now in the University Museum, Philadelphia (Calza, 1972, no. 210). If we contrast the flesh areas on these heads.with the firm surfaces of the Louvre head of Constans, found in Rome, we have probably distinguished a stylistic difference which is geographic, not temporal, in its basis.

Formerly in a private collection in Istanbul.

Bibliography: Delbrueck, 1933, pp. 154—155, pis. 58-59; Calza, 1972, no. 233; Boston, 1976, no. 119.