Pseudo-athlete

1480 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Pseudo-Athlete of Delos - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 13 200

Pseudo-athlete is a concept in Roman portraiture, favored in the late Republican Period, to describe a sculpture that has a combination of a veristic head and an idealized body. Verism shows the person portrayed without idealizing features, with warts, wrinkles, and other physical defects and deformities. It translates to mean "warts and all."^[1] Verism goes beyond a realistic rendering. There was a positive value of age and experience in Rome, so it manipulates the facial expression in an attempt to convey the stern traditional Roman values. One of the potential origins of the veristic style is from Roman funeral masks. The masks were used to give an impersonation of the deceased at the Roman Forum. Therefore, it was critical that the masks reproduced the appearance of the deceased and portrayed all of their features. The public funerals were to portray the character of the deceased, so artists were encouraged to make the masks as expressive as possible using the traditionally prized Roman values: stern moral seriousness (gravitas), firmness and strictness of judgement (severitas), determination and self-possession (constantia), and so on.^[2] While the origin of verism is highly debated as to whether it was from Italic, Etruscan, Roman, Egyptian, or Greek influence, the purpose for realistic, unidealized rendering was specific. The signs of age were used as indicators of wisdom and authority.^[3] The body remains idealized due to Greek influence. In Greek sculpture there is a concept of heroic nudity. It is used to indicate that a sculpture's apparently mortal human subject is in fact a hero or semi-divine being.^[4]

Roman examples

Pseudo-Athlete of Delos

1477 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Pseudo-Athlete of Delos, 80 AD ca. - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto,

The Pseudo-athlete of Delos is a life-size nude male portrait that was found in the House of the Diadoumenos on the Greek island of Delos. It belonged to a Roman business man and dates back to 100 BCE. Stylistic traits of Greek sculpture, such as the contrapposto of the Polykleitan original and the sharp upturn of the head reminiscent of Hellenistic sculpture, were incorporated. In contrast, the bald head, prominent ears, and wrinkled face is reminiscent of the Republican style, as is the combination of the veristic head with the idealized body. The idealized nude body is symbolic of the concept of heroic nudity in Greek sculpture. The realistic head is symbolic of wisdom and experience that comes with age. In Greek portraiture, the head and body show a consistent age. However, in the Roman pseudo-athlete there is a disconnect.^[4] The draped cloth carefully placed across the left shoulder is reminiscent of the Roman toga, while the nude body is typical in Greek statues.^[5] The body is used as a prop for the head. In the Delos pseudo-athlete, nudity is used as a costume or garment since the business man would not have appeared nude in public or in front of his guests.^[4] The combination of the Greek style body with a Roman head makes the sculpture from Delos a great example of the Roman pseudo-athlete.

Tivoli General

General de Tivoli (Massimo) 01

In Tivoli, at the Sanctuary of Hercules, a pseudo-athlete portrait of a general was found. The marble sculpture with a veristic Roman head and idealized Greek body dates back to 75-50 BCE. To show his rank in the army and hold up the heavy marble statue, there is a cuirass at his side. His typical Republican stern and wrinkled face is contrasted by a youthful almost nude body that exudes power and is in the tradition of a Hellenistic ruler. Through the reference back to Greek idealized body, the patron expresses cultural superiority. The general exudes modesty by using a draped cloth to cover his genitals.^[4]

References