. The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:. ull of them. We saw j in an earlier chapter how the old Etruscans had placed terra- , cotta portraits of the deceased upon their tombs, and how the i old Romans preserved wax images of their forefathers for use • at funerals. Most primitive peoples have an instinctive dread I of portraiture as a sort of blasphemy. Perhaps the early ] growth of facial portraiture at Rome was helped by the worship i of a mans genms, his luck, his spirit, his guardian angel, iThe genius naturally was depicted in the likeness of the man him
. The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:. ull of them. We saw j in an earlier chapter how the old Etruscans had placed terra- , cotta portraits of the deceased upon their tombs, and how the i old Romans preserved wax images of their forefathers for use • at funerals. Most primitive peoples have an instinctive dread I of portraiture as a sort of blasphemy. Perhaps the early ] growth of facial portraiture at Rome was helped by the worship i of a mans genms, his luck, his spirit, his guardian angel, iThe genius naturally was depicted in the likeness of the man himself. So the imagines in a Roman atrium were no mere \ portraits of defunct ancestors. Rather they were visible pre- Isentments of invisible presences. Unfortunately very few unquestionably genuine examples of republican portraiture \ have survived. Portraits of ancient celebrities were freely | constructed at all times, and it is not easy to date them. We j have not at Rome as we have in Greece a clear line of artistic i * Plate 18, Fig. i. \ Plate i8, Fig a. ] 156 i. LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC development which enables the trained archaeologist to dateany asual work of art to within half a centu^^ ^^ ,%!We It is now a question of employing more or less skilfulrreek; I is probable that most of the portraits alreadyms rated in this book were executed under the orater The only really ancient portrait of Juhus Caesar ishe black basalt bearded head in the Barracco Museum aRome, but the two fine portraits ^^^uced here from heBritish Museum* and the Vaticanf are copies of realisticoriginals. In each case the modelling of the eyes disprovestheir antiquity. There is another very fine black basalthead of Julius in Berlin, but its attribution has been certainly corresponds very closely with the profile of thedictator on his The bust of M. Brutus may also beidentified by comparison with the coins. That of Cicero isprobable but not so certain. , . , . This
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