{
"data": {
"id": 111518,
"accession_number": "1929.998",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero, 64\u201379 CE. Italy, Roman. Marble; overall: 40 x 21.6 x 24.9 cm (15 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1929.998",
"current_location": "103 Roman",
"title": "Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero",
"creation_date": "64\u201379 CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 64,
"creation_date_latest": 79,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Italy, Roman"
],
"technique": "marble",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Greek and Roman Art",
"collection": "GR - Roman",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 40 x 21.6 x 24.9 cm (15 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.4,
"height_inch": 15,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.216,
"width_inch": 8,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"depth": 0.249,
"depth_inch": 9,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.8125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 222059,
"title": "From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture",
"description": "From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture. Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, GA (organizer) (September 16, 2000-January 7, 2001); Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (January 30-March 25, 2001).",
"opening_date": "2000-09-16T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 383281,
"title": "Stories from Storage",
"description": "Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2021-02-06T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 518465,
"title": "Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder",
"description": "Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY (organizer) (January 21-June 12, 2023) https://museum.cornell.edu/exhibitions/wonder-and-wakefulness-nature-pliny-elder.",
"opening_date": "2023-01-21T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Atlanta, GA: (9/16/00-1/7/01) Michael C. Carolos Museum, Emory University and New Haven, CT: (1/31-3/25/01) Yale University Art Gallery \"From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture\" exh. cat. no. 27, pp 136-139.",
"opening_date": "2000-09-16T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Piero Tozzi Gallery, Florence, Italy, sold to Brummer Gallery",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1928",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1928-1929",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1929-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [
{
"id": 110924,
"description": "Togatus Figure, 1\u2013200 CE. Italy, Roman. Pentelic marble; overall: 167.7 x 63.5 x 40.6 cm (66 x 25 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1929.439",
"relationship": null
}
],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"1929.439a",
"1929.439.2"
],
"did_you_know": "Originally a portrait of Emperor Nero, this head was recarved after his damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory).",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Although this portrait head was designed to fit into a statue of a body, it did not originally belong with the togate body that held it when purchased by the museum in 1929. In 1973, the two were separated, and the body is now in storage. The head itself was recarved in antiquity, from a likeness of Nero to one of Vespasian, following the damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory) of the former. A line at the back of head shows clearly where the long hair of Nero has been shortened, while other Neronian features, such as a receding lower lip, remain.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60741531"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1929.998-portrait-head-of-emp"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Platt, Verity. \u201cReassessing Pliny the Elder at 2000.\u201d In Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder, edited by Verity Platt and Andrew C. Weislogel, pp.15, 21. Ithaca: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, 2024.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "R. H. \"The Portrait of a Roman Statesman.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 8 (1929): 139-41.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137236"
},
{
"citation": "\"Cleveland Gets Roman Statue\" ARTnews. [New York, etc.] (October 19, 1929).",
"page_number": "pp. 1, 13",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"Roman Honesty\" Art Digest. [New York] (Mid October 1929).",
"page_number": "p. 19",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bieber, Margaret. 1944. \u201cRoman Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art.\u201d Art in America 32: 65-83.",
"page_number": "Reproduced in Fig. 11 (then attached to the togate statue 1929.439).",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bieber, Margarete. \"Roman Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art,\" Art in America (April 1944).",
"page_number": "pp. 77, fig. 11",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 40 (then attached to the togate statue 1929.439).",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n22"
},
{
"citation": "Carter, Martha L. Classical Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced; p. 11-12; Plate 18",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/ClassicalArt/page/n15"
},
{
"citation": "Pollini, John. \"Damnatio Memoriae in Stone: Two Portraits of Nero Recut to Vespasian in American Museums.\" American Journal of Archaeology 88, no. 4 (1984): 547-55.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/504743"
},
{
"citation": "Varner, Eric R., and Sheramy D. Bundrick. From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture. Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2000.",
"page_number": "Pp. 136-139 (Cat. 27).",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Varner, Eric R. Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture. Leiden: Brill, 2004.",
"page_number": "Pp. 53, 241, Fig. 49a-e (Cat. 2.17).",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Pollini, John. \"Recutting Roman Portraits: Problems in Interpretation and the New Technology in Finding Possible Solutions,\" in The Good, the Bad, and the Altered: Toward a Method of Identifying Recut and Typologically Irregular Roman Imperial Portraits. Edited by Gregory S. Bucher, et al. 23-44. Rome: American Academy in Rome, 2011.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 32-33, Reproduced: p. 75, figs 21a-e.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Mercha\u0301n Garci\u0301a, Mari\u0301a Jose\u0301. E\u0301cija: (Provincia de Sevilla, Hispania Ulterior Baetica). Thesis (Revised). Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla; Tarragona: ICAC, Institut Catal\u00e0 d\u2019Arqueologia Cl\u00e0ssica, 2015. p. 107",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 107",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Prusac, Marina. From Face to Face: Recarving of Roman Portraits and the Late-Antique Portrait Arts. Second, revised edition. Monumenta Graeca et Romana, Volume 18. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016.",
"page_number": "P. 134, cat. 67.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Platt, Verity J., Andrew Weislogel, and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Wonder and Wakefulness : The Nature of Pliny the Elder. Ithaca, New York: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 2024.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 21-23, no. 2",
"url": ""
}
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