For this reason, Caligula’s iconographic hairstyle, especially with regard esatto the arrangement of the fringe of locks over the forehead, is of great importance in identifying his portraits. Although the configuration of locks is by mai means identical sopra all respects in images of per given portrait type, hairstyles were generally far easier onesto carve con marble than facial features (even by less talented sculptors), and they therefore provide an important index for identifying portraits.
Consequently, the only reliable images for determining his physical appearance are those on labeled coins, which provide us with either his right or left profile
My focus here is on the “image” of Caligula as transmitted esatto us by not only the ancient visual evidence, consisting largely of sculpture and coinage, but also the literary sources representing the views of his detractors. These numismatic profile views can be compared with sculptural portraits-in-the-tempo sicuro establish the identity of the imperial personage represented. Though representations of Caligula sopra the form of portraits must also certainly have existed, none has survived from antiquity.
Whether numismatic or sculptural, the extant portraits of Caligula and other members of the imperial family ultimately reflect, to some degree, verso three-dimensional “Urbild,” or prototype, for which the individual presumably sat. These prototypes, which were probably first produced in clay, mai longer survive, but they would have been used for argilla or plaster models that would presumably have been made available by imperial agents for distribution throughout the Empire, both through military channels and coraggio the “art market.” However, there is no surviving material evidence for these putative plaster or argilla casts of Roman portraits. Other types of models may also have been distributed modo the art market. One possibility not considered per the past is the dissemination of painted wax face-mask models, though we have niente affatto direct evidence for this either.
Instead, provincial imperial portraits often conformed sicuro local, traditional concepts of leadership, suggesting that the central government of Rome only made models available for distribution but did not control how closely they were followed. Local communautaire pressures would nevertheless have assured that the imperial image was both dignified and appropriately displayed. Con other areas of production, there is reason puro believe that the central government, through its agents, did play verso direct role durante disseminating imperial images, including determining how they would look (as mediante the case of state coinage, which was under the direct control of the Princeps). The involvement of imperial agents would likely have also been necessary, for example, when there was a need sicuro make imperial images available rather quickly to the military throughout the Riempire. These images were undoubtedly required con military camps mediante administering the loyalty oath (sacramentum) onesto verso new Princeps and/or, when necessary numero di telefono vietnamcupid, sicuro his officially designated successor.
Many of the portraits produced in the provinces for civic contexts and municipal or colonial worship did not closely follow the imagery of Roman state models, which reflected the official ideology of the principate
The imperial image before which soldiers usually swore their oath — at least initially esatto verso new Princeps — probably took the form of per small bronze imago clipeata (“shield portrait”) or some sort of small bust braccio like that attached puro the military canone (signum) carried per battle, or it may even have been per small bust affixed preciso the primo posto of verso plain pole as a finial. Such standards and poles were also used mediante parades and kept con the shrine (sacellum or aedes) of verso military camp along with portrait statues of the Princeps (and his designated successor), images of the gods, and other military insignia. Thus, represented on the Severan Arch of the Argentarii sopra Rome is per Praetorian standard with attached small busts of Septimius Severus (below) and his young cri and designated successor Caracalla (above)(fig. 9a-b).
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