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Two Recent Acquisitions in Belgrade Museums*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Vladimir Kondić
Vladimir Kondić
Affiliation:
National Museum, Belgrade
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Extract

Discovered by a lucky accident, a Roman bronze head of remarkable quality was unearthed in 1969 in the village of Boleč near Belgrade (Plates V–VII).

Roman portraits in the Danubian provinces, where they are of above-average quality, invariably represent emperors or members of the imperial family. In the case of this bust, the type of beard and the general style show that we are dealing with a personage of the Severan period. The appearance of the beard may suggest a certain resemblance to the emperor Pupienus, but the identification does not bear further inspection, since his portraits differ from the new head significantly in most other details.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 63 , November 1973 , pp. 47 - 49
Copyright
Copyright ©Vladimir Kondić 1973. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Dimensions: height of surviving part 0.41 m, height of head (from beard to crown) 0.33 m, width of head (from ear to ear) 0.22 m. Made from bronze in hollow casting. The entire surface is covered with a light green patina. Preserved in the City Museum, Belgrade, inv. no. 2636. Published with further detail in Serbian, Godišnjak grada Beograda xviii (1972), 1 ff.Google Scholar

2 For a number of doubtful attributions see, among others, Bernoulli, J. J., Die Bildnisse der römischen Kaiser und ihrer Angehörigen, iii: Pertinax bis Theodosius (Stuttgart 1882–1894), 74 ff.Google Scholar

3 Mattingly, H., BMC Rom. Emp. v (London, 1950), ccxiii f.Google Scholar

4 L'Orange, H. P., Studien zur Geschichte des spätantiken Porträts (Oslo 1933), 2.Google ScholarHeintze, H. v. (‘Studien zu den Porträts des 3. Jahrhundert n. Chr.’, Röm. Mitt. 62, 1955, 180)Google Scholar, in discussing the realistic portraiture of a rather later period, suggests that it arose from the wish to reproduce realistically the facial features of military emperors, some of whom were of barbarian origin. Macrinus, whose origin was in Mauretania, certainly had distinctive facial characteristics, and it is conceivable that the forceful personality they registered could have inspired an artist to attempt a realistic portrayal.

5 Cp. for example SHA, Vit. Macr. 14, 1Google Scholar: ‘homo putidulus’.

6 Petrikovits, H. v., RE xviii (1939), 540–58Google Scholar; Mattingly, H., Studies presented to D. M. Robinson ii (London, 1953), 962–9.Google Scholar

7 Stričević, Dj., ‘Brestovik, rimska grobnica’, Starinar vii–viii (Beograd, 1958), 411 f.Google Scholar

8 ILS 2935. A fine inscription from the Upper Moesian town Margum may refer to this well known historian (Mirković, M., Živa Antika xv (1966), 386Google Scholar, no. 5).

9 Petrikovits, loc. cit. 550.

10 Cp. Vulić, N., Nekoliko pitanja iz antičke istorije naše zemlje i rimske starine (Beograd, 1961), 28.Google Scholar

11 Barbieri, G., L'albo senatorio da Settimio Severo a Carino (193–285), 15, no. 27Google Scholar.

12 On them see for example Stein, A., Die Legaten von Moesien (Budapest, 1940), 55Google Scholar; Barbieri, op. cit. 99 f., 421 f. and passim.

13 Cass. Dio, lxxix, 5, 1, 4.

14 The medallion is preserved in the National Museum, Belgrade. For a publication with greater detail, and with somewhat different conclusions (in Serbian), see Starinar xvii (Beograd, 1966), 46 (V. Kondić).

15 Pearce, J. W. E., RIC ix: Valentinian I-Theodosius I (London, 1951), 177Google Scholar, no. 19–21.

16 Ibid. no. 19.

17 Ibid. p. 163.

18 Cp. ibid. 201 f. Interesting also is Aes II, ibid. 219, no. 40.

19 Ibid. 202

20 Cp. Girke, G., Die Tracht der Germanen in der vor-und frühgeschichtlichen Zeit (Leipzig, 1922).Google Scholar