Vespasian with a Vitellian portrait

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Orfew, May 30, 2019.

  1. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Well, he's pretty consistently jowly and heavyset-looking.

    (Alas, that is something I know about all too well. Mirrors can be so unkind. A few years ago, when I was clean-shaven, I looked in the mirror and thought, "Good grief, I look like Hermann Göring now!" So I grew the 'stache back.)
     
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  3. cmezner

    cmezner do ut des Supporter

    same RIC number as yours, but without the Adam's apple and he doesn't look like Otho:
    16 x 19 mm, 3.17 g; Rome 70 AD
    upload_2019-6-7_23-1-45.png upload_2019-6-7_23-1-58.png
     
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  4. Trebellianus

    Trebellianus VOT II MVLT III

    I believe (someone please step in if I'm incorrect) there's no credible portrait of Vitellius outside of the coins.

    The "Grimani Vitellius" (currently in the Archaeological Museum in Venice) was long regarded as an authentic ancient sculpture of the guy:

    Vitellio_grimani_(c.d._'vitellio'),_100-150_dc_ca._02.jpg

    grimani.jpg

    This bust was supposedly dug up by Cardinal Grimani in Rome in 1505, and was identified with Vitellius almost immediately (certainly by 1531).

    Unfortunately educated opinion today is that this isn't Vitellius. The bust has been dated on artistic grounds to the Antonine era, although a minority opinion regards it as an outright 16th Century forgery.

    The famous bust residing in the Louvre (used by e.g. Wikipedia) is regarded by the Louvre as a modern production: a "free imitation of an antique bust from the Grimani collection in Venice."

    614px-Pseudo-Vitellius_Louvre_MR684.jpg

    And all the other nice-looking Vitellius heads are copies of the Grimani Vitellius or the Louvre one, as I understand.

    I borrow this information mainly from the J. Paul Getty Museum Journal: Volume 5, 1977
     
    Bing likes this.
  5. Bing

    Bing Illegitimi non carborundum Supporter

    In real life and with the rolls of fat under the chin, I doubt you would be able to see the Adam's Apple.
     
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