id: 111518 accession number: 1929.998 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.998 updated: 2023-09-13 11:02:57.544000 Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero, AD 64–79. 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 title: Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: AD 64–79 creation date earliest: 64 creation date latest: 79 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, Roman technique: marble department: Greek and Roman Art collection: GR - Roman type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 40 x 21.6 x 24.9 cm (15 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture opening date: 2000-09-16T00:00:00 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). title: Stories From Storage opening date: 2021-02-07T05:00:00 Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021). title: Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder opening date: 2023-01-21T05:00:00 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. --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * 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. --- PROVENANCE Piero Tozzi Gallery, Florence, Italy, sold to Brummer Gallery date: ?-1928 footnotes: citations: Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1928-1929 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1929- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Originally a portrait of Emperor Nero, this head was recarved after his damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory). digital 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. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS id: 110924 Togatus Figure, AD 1–200. 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: --- CITATIONS R. H. "The Portrait of a Roman Statesman." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 8 (1929): 139-41. page number: url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137236 "Cleveland Gets Roman Statue" ARTnews. [New York, etc.] (October 19, 1929). page number: pp. 1, 13 url: "Roman Honesty" Art Digest. [New York] (Mid October 1929). page number: p. 19 url: Bieber, Margaret. 1944. “Roman Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Art in America 32: 65-83. page number: Reproduced in Fig. 11 (then attached to the togate statue 1929.439). url: Bieber, Margarete. "Roman Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art," Art in America (April 1944). page number: pp. 77, fig. 11 url: 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 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 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: url: www.jstor.org/stable/504743 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: 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: Merchán García, María José. Écija: (Provincia de Sevilla, Hispania Ulterior Baetica). Thesis (Revised). Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla; Tarragona: ICAC, Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 2015. p. 107 page number: Mentioned: p. 107 url: 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: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.998/1929.998_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.998/1929.998_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.998/1929.998_full.tif