About the Artwork
This portrait of Rome's first emperor is an idealized, youthful image, which harks back to the representation of athletes and heroes of fifth-century BCE Greece. It follows the portrait well known from a marble statue of Augustus, discovered in the villa of Augustus's wife Livia outside of Rome. That handsome likeness was the source of Inspiration for hundreds of portraits of the emperor all over the expanding Roman Empire. The statue may have served as the cult figure in a temple to the deified emperor, or stood in a public or private place of honor.
Head of Emperor Augustus
1st century CE
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Roman
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Marble
Overall: 28 1/4 × 11 5/8 × 12 5/8 inches (71.8 × 29.5 × 32.1 cm) Overall (head): 19 1/8 × 11 5/8 × 11 1/16 inches (48.6 × 29.5 × 28.1 cm) Mount (base): 9 × 10 3/8 inches (22.9 × 26.4 cm)
Sculpture
Greco-Roman and Ancient European
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James S. Holden
24.101
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
(Joseph Brummer);Mr. and Mrs. James S. Holden (Michigan, USA);
1924-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
P[oland], R[eginald]. "Classical Busts Acquired," Bulletin of the DIA 6, no. 6 (March 1925): 62–64, p. 63 (ill.).
Robinson, David M. "Two New Heads of Augustus," American Journal of Archaeology 30, no. 2 (April–June 1926): 125–136, pp. 127–129 (ill.).
H[eil], W[alter]. "Four Roman Portrait Heads," Bulletin of the DIA 9, no. 3 (December 1927): 28–30, pp. 28–29 (ill.).
Montini, Italo. Il Ritratto di Augusto. Rome, 1938, pp. 59, 88.
Vermeule, Cornelius C. "Greek and Roman Portraits in North American Collections Open to the Public: A Survey of Important Monumental Likenesses in Marble and Bronze which have not been published extensively," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 108, no. 2 (April 1964): 99–134, pp. 104.
Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1966, p. 40 (ill.).
Kiss, Zsolt. L'iconographie des princes Julio-Claudiens au temps d'Auguste et de Tibère. Warsaw, 1975, pp. 53, 181, pl. 604–605 (ill.).
Vermeule, Cornelius. Greek and Roman Sculpture in America. Berkeley, 1981, p. 281, no 238.
Pollini, John. The Portraiture of Gaius and Lucius Caesar. New York, 1987, p. xii, 16, 58, 100, 109, 121, pl. 19 (ill.).
Henshaw, Julia, ed. A Visitor's Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 116 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Roman, Head of Emperor Augustus, 1st century CE, marble. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James S. Holden, 24.101.
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