Head of Gratian. Constantinople, about 370-375. Marble

The head is in an extremely fine state of preservation : minor abrasions include chip off the left side of the nose; the left rim of the hair over the brow bears a chip. Some breaks have occurred in rims of both ears; there are some chisel scratches on the back of the head, which is roughly worked. The fold of the tunic around the back of the neck suggests that the head was to be mounted in a bust or statue. Skin surfaces are highly polished, but the hair left rough and strongly contrasted in texture; eyebrows are scratched into supraorbital ridges, to provide light-refracting surfaces similar to those of the hair.

The use of sharply contrasted textures, including gemlike surfaces, is characteristic of the new classicizing style of the later fourth century; the compact spherical shape and reduced scale also conform to the same post-Constantinian phase. Reduced scale, like the colossal, is rare, if not unknown, in private portraits of the time; hence, as the owner perceptively suggests, the subject should be sought among the younger members of the Valentinian or Theodosian families.

The head portrays a young boy with upturned nose, a smile slightly twisting upward to his left, his gaze slightly to the right. Among the numerous juniors of these interlocked families, the owner finds only one who has coin types that show the same distinctive snub-nosed profile: Gratian (cf. Delbrueck, 1933, pi. 14). The likeness seems to share its general conformation with that of the battered head in Trier also of Gratian, which is dated about 380 (Delbrueck, 1933, pis. 90-91). This more youthful head in Geneva would depict the same person at an earlier age; Gratian was given imperial rank in 369, at the age of ten, and was raised to Augustus in 375; he died in 383.

Said to have been found in Istanbul.

Bust of Valentinian II. Constantinople, about 388. Bronze. The bust is encircled by a laurel wreath whose lower part is broken off in front. There are chisel marks on right brow, cheek, neck, and shoulder, but otherwise the bust is well preserved, with traces of gilding. No solder or rivet holes, so most likely its use would have been as a finial of a military standard or similar emblem.

The subject is a youthful emperor, wearing diadem with double row of large pearls and central jewel; chlamys fastened at right shoulder with large rectangular fibula. The eyes have deeply cut pupils but no indication of iris; the hair frames the brow under the diadem in regular, striated locks, with longer locks in front of ears. The head is long and narrow, shoulders are sloping, and upper torso is rounded, almost hemispherical: this inorganic, elegant physical form is typical of the depiction of the human figure in the Theodosian period.

In fact the entire bust strongly resembles those of the imperial figures on the silver Missorium of Theodosius in Madrid, dated to about 388 (no. 64), especially that of Valentinian II, younger brother of Gratian, who died in 392. Coins confirm this identification (Delbrueck, 1933, pi. 14). Delbrueck noted that Theodosius conducted a campaign against his rival Maximus in Pannonia in 388—a likely occasion for the loss of a standard in that province.

Found in Pannonia (Hungary); in the Horvath collection, Pecs, until 1912.
Bibliography: Delbrueck, 1933, pp. 198-199, pi. 93.

 






Date added: 2025-07-10; views: 9;


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