14A020
HEAD OF A PHILOSOPHER
Roman Asia Minor, circa 170-190 A.D.
White marble, Height: 19 cm.

This marble head shows a middle-aged man with a mustache and tapering, curly beard of medium length. His curly hair grows luxuriantly at his temples, completely covering his ears, with two prominent curls on his forehead. His brow is creased and there are scowl lines above the root of his nose, a typical iconographic feature defining the so-called thinker's brow. Although the heavy-lidded eyes, long, straight nose, and thin lips give the head a certain individual appearance, all the seemingly individual features are part of the typical iconography of a philosopher in the second and third century A.D. This is the reason why this head, at first sight, so much resembles the portraits of the "philosopher-emperor" Marcus Aurelius. His image became an archetype for the self-portrayal of the intellectually inclined upper classes of the Roman Empire. A citizen who wanted to be seen as an intellectual might portray himself in this fashion on his grave monument. This, in fact, is the context of our head: its two-thirds life size shows that it probably does not come from a free-standing figure but from a monument like the well-known column sarcophagi from Asia Minor. There the deceased is often depicted in the manner of a philosopher, wearing Greek clothing and holding a scroll. The figures on these reliefs are often nearly free standing, and the heads sometimes have no connection at all to the background, so that no traces of an attachment remain. The use of the drill, visible in the hair and beard of our head, dates the piece to the late Antonine or Severan era, the period of the main production of this type of sarcophagus. These sarcophagi were standardized products, created to appeal to men of education and wealth but not individually commissioned. Stylistically and iconographically, the closest parallel seems to be a sarcophagus now in the museum of Antalya where the deceased is portrayed twice in the same manner and a similar type of drilling can be observed.

For comparison, see: H. Wiegartz, Kleinasiastische Säulensarkophage (1965); W.H. Buckler, W.M. Calder, and W.K.C. Guthrie, Monuments and Documents from Eastern and Western Galatia, MAMA IV (1933), pl. 23-25; Antalya Museum (1988), p. 108, fig. 134. On the bourgeois philosopher generally, see P. Zanker, Die Maske des Sokrates (1995), pp. 252ff.

An intense and powerful sculpture
representative of the late 2nd century A.D.

Catalogue XIV

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