id: 108314 accession number: 1925.945 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.945 updated: 2020-03-17 09:00:04.187000 Relief Portrait of the Emperor Balbinus, c. 238. Italy, Roman, 3rd century. Marble; overall: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of J. H. Wade 1925.945 title: Relief Portrait of the Emperor Balbinus title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 238 creation date earliest: 200 creation date latest: 299 current location: 103 Roman creditline: Gift of J. H. Wade copyright: --- culture: Italy, Roman, 3rd century technique: marble department: Greek and Roman Art collection: GR - Roman type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: Carved in deep relief (not quite in the round), this head comes from a large sarcophagus. digital description: Wearing a laurel wreath, this head belongs to the little-known Emperor Balbinus, who ruled the empire together with Pupienus for only 99 days in AD 238, the now infamous Year of the Six Emperors. Following his death at the hands of an angry mob, Balbinus and his wife (whose name remains unknown) nevertheless received a large and impressive marble sarcophagus. The couple recline together on the lid, and appear twice in relief on the front, where this head originally belonged. Remarkably, although the head was purchased in Rome in 1925, two years before the sarcophagus was discovered (in many pieces near the Praetextatus Catacombs in Rome), it was found to fit a gap in the larger sculpture in 1966. Since then, a plaster cast of the Cleveland head has remained in place on the original sarcophagus, now in the Vatican Museums. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Jucker, Hans, and John D. Cooney. "A Portrait Head of the Emperor Balbinus." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 1 (1967): 11-16. page number: url: www.jstor.org/stable/25152134. Kleiner, Diana E. E. Roman Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. page number: Discussed pp. 384-385. Ill. p. 356 (det.), 384 (fig. 356). url: Vermeule, Cornelius C. Greek and Roman Sculpture in America: Masterpieces in Public Collections in the United States and Canada. Malibu, Calif: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1981. page number: P. 359, cat. 310 (Ill.). url: Jucker, H. "Die Behauptung des Balbinus," Archäologischer Anzeiger, Heft 4, 1966, pp. 501-514. page number: Ill. Abb. 1-3. url: Newark Museum, and Dorothy M. Budd. Curator's Choice from the Ancient World. 1968. page number: Ill. and discussed by John D. Cooney on 26th page (unnumbered). url: Poses Institute of Fine Arts. Art of the Late Antique from American Collections: A Loan Exhibition of the Poses Institute of Fine Arts [Held at] Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, December 18, 1968-February 16, 1969. [Waltham]: [publisher not identified], 1968. page number: P. 47, Pl. III (Cat. 6). url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 26 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n50 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 26 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n48 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 30 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n50 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 14 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n29 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.945/1925.945_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.945/1925.945_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.945/1925.945_full.tif