The features of this head resemble those of Drusus, son of the Roman emperor Tiberius (AD 14-37). Roman rule was consolidated on Cyprus through the use of images of the ruler and his family, especially for the imperial cult that worshipped the emperor and his family as gods. This head is made of marble imported from north-west Turkey but is carved in the older local tradition of limestone sculpture.

Description

Marble portrait head from a statue of a Julio-Claudian prince, perhaps the younger Drusus, son of the emperor Tiberius.

Curator's comments

This is a rare sculpture probably carved on Cyprus by a sculptor familiar with Cypriot traditions of working in limestone but using imported marble.

The marble of this piece has a slightly greyish tinge. It resembles, and may be, Proconnesian marble from the sea of Marmara. The back of the head was never finished and is now partly split away and partly hewn out, though the neck is worked to fit a complete statue. The flat planes of the carving suggest that it was made by a sculptor familiar with the carving of limestone. Thus it was possibly carved in Cyprus alongside other Roman sculptures of imported marble.

The portrait has the characteristics of the younger Drusus (15 BC - AD 23), son of Emperor Tiberius, as shown on his coins. Note in particular the slightly curving nose, the arching eyebrows and the hair that falls down low over the forehead. Portraiture played a vital role in establishing the public identity of the first imperial family of Rome. While often regarded - inaccurately - as a provinicial backwater, the island was important for its natural resources, notably grain, copper and timber.

Bibliography: 
Walker S. 1995, Greek and Roman portraits (London).

Smith A H. 1904, Ccatalogue of Greeek sculpture in the British Museum, vol. 3 (London), no. 1882.

Daszewski W.A. 1994, 'Marble sculptures in Nea Paphos: Cypriot or imported', in Cypriote stone sculpture. Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Cypriote Studies, Brussels-Liège, 17-19 May, 1993 (Brussels-Liège), pp. 153-60.