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Another Funerary Portrait from Cyrenaica in the British Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

A. Bonanno
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Extract

A peculiar and very distinct group of portraits have in recent years aroused the interest of an increasing number of students of Roman art. These are the Cyrenaican funerary portraits, some 117 of which were studied and published for the first time as a separate series by E. Rosenbaum in 1960. Several of these portraits have found their way into European collections of ancient sculpture in these last two centuries. One is presently housed in the Museo Nazionale in Rome, and six are in the possession of the Museum Authorities in Malta. Six of the portraits published by Rosenbaum come from the British Museum. To these a seventh one (PLATE 00) should be added, which has remained unpublished having escaped the attention of both Rosenbaum and the compiler of the volume devoted to Cyrenaica of the Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani for Great Britain. Considering the easily noticeable character of this type of funerary sculpture it is somewhat surprising that neither of the two distinguished scholars became aware of the existence of this portrait. It has to be said, however, that no mention of it is made in either Smith and Porcher, or the catalogue of sculpture of the British Museum.

Type
Research Article
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 7 , 1976 , pp. 27 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1976

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References

Notes and References

1. Rosenbaum, E., A Catalogue of the Cyrenaican Portrait Sculpture (London 1960 nos. 185–283, 299–318Google Scholar. To my knowledge only one such portrait had previously been published in Ferri, S., L'Arte sul Danubio (Milan 1933) 132–3, fig.160Google Scholar. Ferri, however, used it only to illustrate Roman art in a former Greek colony and missed out its importance as a specimen of a distinct group of portraits.

2. Rosenbaum, no.266. The portrait will be published more extensively in an article by Bacchielli, L. in Quaderni di Archeologia della Libia 9 (1977)Google Scholar. Another article by L. Beschi, on some Cyrenaican portraits in Crete, is due to appear in Quaderni di Archeologia della Libia 8 (1976)Google Scholar. Thanks are due to Prof. L. Bacchielli for this information. Bacchielli informs me also that several other portraits have been discovered in recent years at Cyrene, all of which will be published in the near future.

3. Four of the Maltese group were published by Sestieri, P. C., “Sculture Maltesi II”, Archivio Storico Maltese 10 (1939) fasc.3–4, pp. 231–8Google Scholar, who erroneously recognised in them products of Maltese art in the Roman period. See Bonanno, A., “Cyrenaican funerary portraits in Malta”, JRS 66 (1976)Google Scholar,

4. Rosenbaum nos.201, 202, 217, 250, 256 and 270. See also Bailey, D. M., “Crowe's tomb at Benghasi”, BSA 67 (1972) 3–4, pl. 1 a–bGoogle Scholar.

5. Huskinson, J., Roman Sculpture from Cyrenaica in the British Museum. Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Great Britain II, 1 (London 1975)Google Scholar. At present it is kept in the basement of the B.M. together with other Roman portraits. I wish to thank Mr. D. Haynes, former keeper of the Greek and Roman Antiquities Department of the B.M. for allowing me to photograph and publish this head. Thanks are also due to Dr. R. A. Higgins, present Deputy Keeper of the same Department.

6. Smith, R. M. and Porcher, E. A., History of the Recent Discoveries at Cyrene, made during an Expedition to the Cyrenaica in 1860–61 (London 1864)Google Scholar.

7. Smith, A. H., A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum (London 1900–1904)Google Scholar.

8. Parlasca, K., Mumienportrats und verwandte Denkmäler (Wiesbaden 1966)Google Scholar; id. Ritratti di mummia, Repertorie d'Arte dell'Egitto greco-romano B I (Palermo 1969)Google Scholar.

9. Rosenbaum 18.

10. Ibid. 15–6, pls. I–II.

11. H. Total 0.40 m; H. of head 0.23 m; max. W. 0.24 m; max. thickness 0.16 m. The marble is white with big flaky crystals probably Parian. The surface of the marble is very corroded especially on the face and hair. A large part of the nose is missing. Chips missing from eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, lips, beard and drapery. The entire surface is weathered to a dark grey colour which persists even after careful cleaning.

12. See Bonanno, JRS 66 (1976)Google Scholar.

13. Rosenbaum pl.LXXXIX.

14. Ibid. pl.XC.

15. Ibid. pl.LXXXVIII.

16. See, for example, the one in the Museo Nazionale, Naples: Paribeni, E., Il Ritratto nell'Arte Antica (Milan 1934) pl.CCXXXIIIGoogle Scholar; and the one in the Conservatori Museum: Wegner, M., Das Römische Herrscherbild, II 3 (Berlin 1956), pl.3Google Scholar.

17. Maj, B. M. Felletti, Museo Nazionale Romano, I Ritratti (Rome 1953) no.203Google Scholar.

18. Wegner, M., Das Römische Herrscherbild, II 4 (Berlin 1939), pl.4aGoogle Scholar.

19. Rosenbaum no.46, pl.XXXIII.

20. Esperandieu, E., Receuil Général des Bas Reliefs, Statues et Bustes de la Gaule Romaine, IX (Paris 1925) 155 no.86818Google Scholar

21. Rosenbaum pl.XCIII.

22. Such curls occur on portraits of Livia: Poulsen, V., Les Portraits Romains, I (Copenhagen 1962) no.39, Pl.LXVGoogle Scholar; Agrippina the Elder: Pietrangeli, C., “Agrippina Maggiore”, EAA I (1958) 160, fig.231Google Scholar; and Antonia Minor: Poulsen, V. H., “Studies in Julio-Claudian Iconography”, Acta A 17 (1946) 24 ff., figs.18-20Google Scholar.

23. Rosenbaum pl.LXXXVI.