Bronze Portrait of a Man in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, October 2009

Portrait of a man

A.D. 200–230


Dimensions: Height: 31 cm (12 3/16 in.)

Accession Number: 96.703

Medium or Technique: Bronze


This head of a now anonymous man once belonged to a life-size bronze statue. Sunken eyes, a lined face, and a furrowed brow lend the portrait an air of mature gravity. The combination of short, thick, curly hair with a closely cropped beard dates the work to the early third century A.D., when this style of grooming was in fashion. The incision of fine details, such as the strands of the eyebrows and the irises and pupils in the eyes, had long been a regular feature of large-scale portraits in bronze, though by this time the practice had spread to marble statuary, as well.

The right side of the head (above the ear) has been pushed in, and the piece has a dark, greenish black patina.

Provenance: According to Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome (1897), pp. 24-25, the head was found in the Tiber in 1878 and bought many years later by Alessandro Castellani; by date unknown: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: Bought in Rome, said to have been found in Tiber) (MFA Bronze catalogue added the location of Ponte Sisto); purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren, October 1896

Credit Line: Catharine Page Perkins Fund

Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/portrait-of-a-man-152814