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Imperial Cuirass-Ornamentation, and a Torso of Hadrian in the British Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Warwick Wroth
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Extract

In the last volume of the Journal of Hellenic Studies (vi. pp. 378–380) Prof. Newton has commented at length on some remarks made by me in the same volume (vi. pp. 199—201) on the torso of an imperial statue found at Cyrene and now in the British Museum. Before considering Mr. Newton's paper in detail I may be permitted to say a few words on the subject of cuirass-ornamentation in general.

In his Winckelmanns-fest-program for 1868, Dr. Hübner referred to the want of a classified list of ornamented cuirasses of emperors. No one has, at present, attempted to compile such a list, which would, practically, have to take the form of a complete monograph on statuae thoracatae, in which the restorations, style, material, pose, and attribution of each figure would have to be carefully studied. To carry out this work it would be necessary to make a personal examination of a large number of statues which have not hitherto been critically described, and which have suffered greatly at the hands of restorers. A difficulty which specially complicates the study of this class of monuments would also have to be borne in mind— namely, that in many cases the body of imperial statues appears to have been originally made apart from the head.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 7 , November 1886 , pp. 126 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1886

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References

page 127 note 1 Occasionally the design is of extreme simplicity, e.g. on the ‘Panzer-statue mit Kopf (?)’, ‘Commodus?’ found at Olympia (Die Ausgrab., ii. Pl. xxviii.) which is only ornamented with a gorgoneion-aegis. The statue in Clarac, no. 2487 D., Pl. 936 D has a cuirass entirely covered with an acanthus ornamentation.

page 129 note 1 On a headless statue from Carthage in the British Museum, the right [spectator's left] side of the cuirass is ornamented with a Griffin (nota Victory, as described in British Museum Guide to Graeco-Roman Sculptures pt. ii. (1876), p. 37, no. 79): the left side of the cuirass is partially covered by the paludamentum.

page 135 note 1 Some further references to various cuirasses &c., may here be added:—Benndorf and Schöne, Die ant. Bildw. des lateran. Mus., 1867, No. 497; Bernoulli, , Rom. Ikon. ii. p. 306Google Scholar, No. 10 = Clarac, No. 2374, pl. 933; Clarac, No. 2353, pl. 924; No. 2420 B, pl. 936 A; No. 2509, pl. 973; No. 2502, pl. 974; No. 2525, pl. 980 = Mich. F. v. Jabornegg-Altenfels, Kärnten's römische Alterthümer, Klagenfurt, , 1870, p. 145, No. ccclxixGoogle Scholar; Dütschke, , Zerstrcute ant. Bildw. in Florenz, Giardino Boboli, No. 88 (22), p. 46Google Scholar; Dütschke, , Ant. Bildw. in Turin, Brescia, Verona and Mantua, No. 678, p. 304Google Scholar, ‘Hadriansbuste’ (Mantua); ib. No. 857, No. 372 (cuirass); Friedlaenderin, Arch. Zeitung, 1860, p. 34Google Scholar; pl. 136, Der Erz Coloss von Barletta; Heydemann, , Die ant. Marmor - Bildwerke ⃜ zu Athen (Berlin, 1874), No. 422 (150) p. 162Google Scholar; ib. No. 608 (186), p. 221; Hübner, , Die ant. Bildw. in Madrid, No. 82, p. 85Google Scholar; ib. Nos. 692, 693, p. 294; Matz, and Von Duhn, , Ant. Bildw. in Rom, i. No. 1344 (cuirass plain)Google Scholar; ib. No. 1346, 1347; No. 1360 (fragment of cuirass, ‘Victory with vexillum’); No. 1361 A; No. 1362; von Sybel, L., Katalog der Sculpturen zu Athen, No. 420, p. 76Google Scholar; No. 422, p. 77, ‘Torso einer (unteritalischen?) Stadtgöttin; aus der Kaiserzeit.’ She wears a cuirass with a representation of Skylla, see authorities cited by Sybel; ib. No. 423, p. 77; No. 3919, p. 281; No. 3944, p. 282; No. 4849, p. 331; No. 5956, p. 373; No. 6394, p. 395; No. 6488, p. 399; No. 6608, p. 405.

page 136 note 1 Cf. the Victories holding shields &c., on the reliefs of Sarcophagi, Matz, and Von Duhn, , Ant. Bildw. in Rom, ii. p. 142, f.Google Scholar

page 138 note 1 Cp. Hor., Carm. Saec. and Boissier, , La Religion romaine (1878), i. p. 80ff.Google Scholar

page 138 note 2 Hor., Carm. iv. 15, 4.

page 140 note 1 The object placed between the Victories on No. 3 is called by Clarac (No. 2479, pl. 964) the ‘Palladium,’ though it is not very distinct in his engraving, and Hübner, (Augustus (1868), p. 12)Google Scholar calls it a trophy. No. 7 is a fragment and it is impossible to say whether it originally had or had not the Wolf and Twins device.

page 140 note 2 M. Dethier of the Constantinople Museum called the statue ‘Caracalla,’ but it certainly has not the characteristic head and features of that Emperor.

page 140 note 3 I regret that I have not had access to a copy of Mons. S. Reinach's Catalogue of the Constantinople Museum.