Portrait of the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)
possibly Italian (Roman) School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1780 - 1820
Materials
Marble
Measurements
65 x 45 cm
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852221
Summary
Sculpture, marble; portrait of the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC; Probably Italy, Rome, after an antique model; c. 1780-1820. This is one of four busts in the Library at Ickworth that were installed on a set of tall rosewood bookcases suppied by the firm of Banting, France and Co in 1829. The four busts depict historical, literary and political figures from the ancient world: Alexander the Great, the Greek orator Demosthenes, the poet Homer and the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. The four busts are all different in form and facture so are not the products of a single workshop. In particular the bust of Cicero is made from marble, not plaster, and may have been commissioned in Rome or Florence by the 4th Earl of Bristol, the Earl Bishop. Marcus Tullius Cicero was a famous orator and politician in late Republican Rome. He began to be rediscovered in the late Middle Ages and became especially admired in the eighteenth century, when his writings inspired the founding fathers of the United States of America and the revolutionary movement in France. He was often linked with the Greek orator Demosthenes, so it is no coincidence that they should be found together in the Library at Ickworth.
Full description
A portrait bust in marble depicting the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, showing the subject facing to his left and with a naked bust section. Damage to the nose. An integral rectangular tablet inscribed ‘CICERO’. Mounted on grey marble socle. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was celebrated as an orator, active in public life in late Republican Rome and famous for the speeches he made in the forum of the city. In 63 BC Cicero was elected a consul, distinguishing himself in his role in the suppression of the Catiline conspiracy, a plot led by Lucius Sergius Catilina that aimed to overthrow Cicero and his fellow consul Gaius Antonius Hybrida. After some years away from Rome, Cicero returned to the city in 49, just as the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey was breaking out. Cicero wrote most of his oratorical and rhetorical works during the following years. After the assassination of Caesar, he was named as an enemy by the new triumvirate of Octavian, Antony and Lepidus and was murdered by their soldiers whilst attempting to flee Rome, on 7 December 43. Rediscovered as an author by Petrarch in the fourteenth century, in subsequent centuries Cicero came to be regarded as one of the greatest Latin writers and guides to life. He was especially highly thought of in the eighteenth century and, as a great republican, inspired the founding fathers of the United States of America and the revolutionary movement in France. By the eighteenth century, Cicero and the Greek Demosthenes had come to be regarded as the greatest orators of the ancient Roman and Greek worlds respectively and were quite frequently portrayed together - for example in a pair of small silver-gilt busts made in Italy in the late eighteenth century, at Anglesey Abbey (NT 517628 & 517629). Whilst the presence of busts of both Cicero and Demosthenes at Ickworth (NT 852219) will not have been accidental, the two portraits were clearly not made as a pair. Cicero is in marble, whereas Demosthenes is a plaster cast and also has a squared as opposed to a curved bust section. The Demosthenes, along with two other busts of Alexander the Great (NT 852218) and the poet Homer (NT 852220), were probably acquired specifically to sit atop the enormous rosewood bookcases that were supplied in 1829 for the new Library by the firm of Banting, France and Co. The bust of Cicero may on the other hand have already been at Ickworth and could even be a remnant of the extensive sculpture collections assembled by Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, the Earl Bishop (1730-1803), which were mostly dispersed and lost after his death. The bust was among the sculptures recorded in the Library in 1838 by John Gage in his 'History and Antiquities of Suffolk', whereas the plaster busts were not mentioned by the author. Perhaps at this time the Cicero was not on one of the bookshelves but among the portrait busts of contemporary politicians on display elsewhere in the Library. The sculpture is a copy of a well-known portrait bust in the Uffizi, Florence (Inv. 1914 no. 393), which was long believed to be a portrait of Cicero but is today instead regarded simply as a portrait of an unknown Roman man. The Uffizi bust was found in Rome in the early 17th century, during building work on the church of Sant’Ignazio, and entered the collection of Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici in 1669. Other copies of the Uffizi bust are at Peckover House (NT 781678, plaster) and Saltram (NT 872408, marble). The choice of subjects for the four busts in the Library suggests some forethought. Demosthenes and Cicero may be seen as representing the power of language, as well as politics, in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds respectively. Alexander the Great and Homer on the other hand were included for the twin powers of history and literature. Jeremy Warren November 2025
Provenance
Part of the Bristol Collection. The house and contents were acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to the National Trust in 1956.
Marks and inscriptions
Inscribed on tablet:: CICERO
Makers and roles
possibly Italian (Roman) School, sculptor British (English) School, sculptor
References
Gage, 1838: John Gage. The history and antiquities of Suffolk: Thingoe hundred. London: Printed by Samuel Bentley, Dorset Street; Pub.John Deck, Bury St. Edmund’s, and Samuel Bentley, Dorset Street, 1838., p. 307