The Tusculum portrait, also called the Tusculum bust, is the only extant portrait of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

which may have been made during his lifetime. It is also one of the two accepted portraits of Caesar (alongside the Chiaramonti Caesar) which were made before the beginning of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

. Being one of the copies of the bronze original, the bust has been dated to 50–40 BC and is housed in the permanent collection of the

Museum of Antiquities The Museum of Antiquities was an archaeological museum at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It opened in 1960 and in 2009 its collections were merged into the Great North Museum: Hancock. History The museum was originally ope ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Made of fine-grained

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

, the bust measures 33 cm (1ft 1in) in height.

Description

The portrait's facial features are consistent with those found on coins struck shortly before

Caesar's assassination Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March (15 March) of 44 BC during a meeting of the Senate at the Curia of Pompey of the Theatre of Pompey in Rome where the senators stabbed Caesar 23 ...

, particularly on the

denarii The denarius (, dēnāriī ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very ...

issued by Marcus Mettius. The bust's head is prolonged, forming a saddle shape which could have been the result of a premature

ossification Ossification (also called osteogenesis or bone mineralization) in bone remodeling is the process of laying down new bone material by cells named osteoblasts. It is synonymous with bone tissue formation. There are two processes resulting in ...

of the sutures between the

parietal bone The parietal bones () are two bones in the skull which, when joined at a fibrous joint, form the sides and roof of the cranium. In humans, each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, and four angles. It is n ...

and the

temporal bone The temporal bones are situated at the sides and base of the skull, and lateral to the temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex. The temporal bones are overlaid by the sides of the head known as the temples, and house the structures of the ears. ...

in Caesar's skull. The portrait also exhibits dolichocephaly, another type of cranial deformity which Caesar "may, or may not, have suffered" from, according to Mary Beard. Like the Arles bust (which is also alleged to be a depiction of Caesar), the portrait includes a wrinkled neck, which could have been caused by years of campaigning in extreme weather conditions; this feature has been omitted from other posthumous busts, but can be seen on at least one coin issued during Caesar's lifetime. According to

Jiří Frel Jiří Frel (often spelled as Jiri Frel, 1923, Dolní Újezd, Czechoslovakia — 29 April 2006, Paris) was a Czech and American archaeologist. Between 1973 and 1986 he served as a curator for the J. Paul Getty Museum. He is credited with the expan ...

, this feature characterizes Caesar as a general rather than a ruler, unlike later busts. The portrait's hair is present but thinning. These realistic features place the bust in the tradition of verism, as opposed to other surviving portraits which have been identified as Caesar.

In modern day

The Tusculum portrait was excavated by

Lucien Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 ...

at the forum in

Tusculum Tusculum is a ruined Classical Rome, Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable dist ...

in 1825 and was later brought to Castello d'Aglie, though it was not recognised as a bust of Caesar until Maurizio Borda identified it in 1940. The portrait was exhibited in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

alongside the Arles bust. There are three known copies of the Tusculum portrait, which reside in

Woburn Abbey Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, ...

and in private collections in Florence and Rome.

References

External links

{{Julius Caesar Marble sculptures in Italy 1st-century BC Roman sculptures Archaeological discoveries in Italy 1825 archaeological discoveries Busts of Julius Caesar Busts in Italy

Description

In modern day

See also

References

External links