Unknown artist, Roman

This carefully sculpted head represents a particular individual: a balding man of late middle age with wrinkled, sagging skin and a serious expression. At the same time, it depicts an ideal type: that of a statesman in the Roman Republican period, when high political offices were reserved for those of advanced years and patrician birth. Images of the time sought to highlight culturally defined virtues: frankness, integrity, and devotion to duty. Portrait statues of illustrious men filled Rome’s public spaces and portrait busts of distinguished ancestors lined the entrance halls of the homes of the Roman elite.