Augustus Of Augustus

Roman portraits in general seem to represent not just the mere appearance of the people portrayed, but particularly their identity. This feature seems to be closely connected with the concept of physiognomics, developed by Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus in the fourth century BC, in which they demonstrated the close connection between the appearance of a person and his character1. Portraits of emperors also had a distinctive purpose to them. They intended to impress as well as to communicate the message of the powerful ruler and of his achievements.

Here, we will look at two vivid examples of such a pattern in the art of the ancient Rome: the statue of Augustus of Prima Porta and the colossal head of emperor Constantine. Even though
It is 2 feet and 7.5 inches tall, and is now displayed in Vatican Museum.

In his autobiography Res Gestae, Augustus had publicly rejected the eighty silver statues representing him in Rome. This creates the image of a good and humble ruler. Still, the fact that those figures existed at all, in such a great number and in precious metal makes us wonder about why were they created in the first place. However, Augustus did not destroy all the images of himself.

In the statue of Prima Porta he is idealized, looking both godlike and human. His face bears close resemblance with all the other portraits of him and is most likely a realistic portrait, while his body is obviously idealized. Augustus' biographer Suetonius is being quite vivid in his physical description:

Augustus was remarkably handsome and of very graceful gait. His teeth were small, few, and decayed; his hair, yellowish and rather curly; his eyebrows met above the nose; he had ears of moderate size, a nose projecting a little at the top and then bending slightly inward, and a complexion intermediate between dark and
The cuirass statue of Augustus from Prima Porta is one of the best examples of a record of the emperor's great deeds. Augustus' ancestry from Venus is suggested through the Cupid at his side and the presence of god Apollo along with Diana, Venus and Mars on his armour breastplate. Augustus was not known as a good soldier. Most of the decisive battles in his youth were won for him by his general Agrippa, later on - by his stepsons Tiberius and Germanicus. Augustus concentrated on governing and perfecting the existing Rome, not on expanding its borders. Painting the return of the standards on his breastplate, with a soldier receiving them, suggests that the standards were gotten back as a result of warfare. This creates an impression that it was Augustus the General, and not the Politician, who won them back. This was not true, however. The standards were given back by the Parthians as a result of a treaty. The final element of the breastplate is the sphinxes on the shoulder flaps. They stand for Egypt conquered by Augustus, which was the most abundant source of wealth for the Empire. Even before the statue was made, he had used sphinxes as his seal for a couple of