7 ROMAN MARBLE OVER-LIFESIZE PORTRAIT OF THE EMPEROR, AUGUSTUS, 27 BC- AD 14, with finelymodeled features, his oval face with strong cheekbones, the fleshy bow-shaped mouth with the lips pressed together, dimpled at the corners, a single shallow crease across the broad forehead, the layered hair composed of a mass of short comma-shaped locks, with the three characteristic locks at the center of his forehead, two parted at the center and one to his right, a single lock curving forward before each ear. Ca. AD 30. H. 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm.) Ex Enrico Serranti and Giovanna LoMoro, New York and New Jersey, acquired in 1981; private collection, Westlake Village, Cailfornia, acquired at Christie’s, New York, 8 June 2004, lot 57. Augustus was the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor (27 BC-AD 14). This posthumous portrait was sculpted during the reign of his adopted son and successor Tiberius. It is based upon the marble statue of Augustus Caesar which was discovered in 1863, in the villa of his wife, Livia Drusilla, at Prima Porta, near Rome, to which she retired after his death, and is now displayed in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums.
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8 ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A YOUTHFUL ATHLETE with short, curly hair. The drilling of the hair suggests a date in the Severan Period though based upon a Hellenistic type of the 3rd or early 2nd century BC. 3/4 life-size. Ca. AD 180-220. H. 10 in. (25.5 cm.) Ex Belgian collection, acquired ca. 1985. White fine crystalline marble.
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