Tondo
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1700 - 1800
Materials
Fine grained white marble and predominant grey veined Carrara Marble
Measurements
480 x 340 x 120 mm
Collection
Farnborough Hall, Warwickshire
NT 831166
Summary
Oval tondo with ancient head of clean shaven man. Left profile of portrait head of clean-shaven man, mounted on 18th century medallion. Early second century. Ancient head fitted into modern bust in modern medallion. The medallion, the bust, the nose, and a significant portion of the hair are modern restorations. The medallion and the bust are made from one piece of marble. The head is essentially ancient. It was cut through (just to the left of center) and mounted on medallions either by a dowel or glue. Its other half, the right profile, exists in a medallion in the National Museum in Oslo. Restorations on the ancient left profile in Farnborough include: the part in the hair over the brow locks and the hair at the crown of the head, especially the whirl. Restorations to the Oslo right profile include: the hair at the top of the head as well as that around the temples and brow, also the ear, the hair in front of the ear, and the hair above the ear. The left profile shows signs of weathering. Also an inorganic corner in the hairline at the brow and left temple is probably the result of a modern intervention. Two locks in front of the ear and rim of the ear are broken. The eyeballs of both profiles are unmarked.
Provenance
This medallion is a modern, 18th century creation that uses the left side of an ancient portrait to create an attractive cameo-like effect. There are other examples of this same genre at Farnborough (the Lucius Verus and a head of an Antonine woman). The right side of this same portrait head, mounted on a similar medallion, can now be found in the National Museum in Oslo. The ancient portrait of this medallion depicts a clean-shaven man with unmarked pupils, a technical detail that almost certainly places it before AD 130; the first securely dated portraits with drilled eyes belong to the posthumous images of Antinoos who died in AD 130. Furthermore, the remaining traces of the original hairstyle show straight hair that comes forward. This is typical of the hairstyle of the Emperor Trajan, AD 98-117. Thus the portrait seems to date to the early second century.