File:Half-life-sized bronze head of Marcus Aurelius with bright blue glass inlaid eyes, ploughed up in a field at Steane in 1976 (UK), AD 161-180, Ashlomean Museum, Oxford (13993546907).jpg
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| Description |
English: Found near Brackley, Northamptonshire, the half-life-sized portrait (16.2cm high) was hollow-cast in heavily leaded bronze, using iron spacers, traces of which may still be seen on the top of the head, inside and out.
The bearded subject closely resembles some of the portraits of the emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius (ruled AD 161-180). Specialists in Roman imperial portraiture compare this head with the “third type” of Marcus’s portraits. The classification of an emperor’s portraits into types is based upon the close examination of named portraits on contemporary coins issued by the imperial authorities and the systematic comparison of these with similar portraits, usually of much larger scale and cast in metal or carved in stone. Despite the confident association of this portrait with images of the emperor made in or clearly influenced by Rome, this head has features which strongly suggest that it was made in Britain or northern Gaul. Most strikingly, the emperor has been given bright blue eyes, the bronze inlaid with glass coloured with cobalt. Equally unexpected are the cone-shaped coils of beard projecting at a sharp angle from the head, and disconnected, upturned moustaches. Little effort has been made to distinguish the ears and nose, and there are no eyebrows. In contrast, the almond-shaped, inlaid eyes are heavily outlined. The mouth is a single, down-turned line. These un-naturalistic features may be compared with some twenty heads of gods and mortals, cast in bronze or carved in stone at similar scale, which have been found in south-east England and northern France. Source: <a href="http://britisharchaeology.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/highlights/marcus-head.html" rel="nofollow">britisharchaeology.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/highlights/marcus-head...</a> |
| Date | |
| Source | Flickr |
| Author |
English: Following Hadrian |
Licensing edit
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Following Hadrian at https://www.flickr.com/photos/41523983@N08/13993546907. It was reviewed on 17 January 2015 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0. |
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| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| current | 06:42, 17 January 2015 | | 3,157 × 4,569 (8.46 MB) | YiFeiBot (talk | contribs) | Bot: Uploading files from Flickr per request by Yann |
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