Bust of Nero
Nero, son of Agrippina. Hardly any other Roman emperor raises so many controversies. His contemporaries laughed at him, even criticized him, and to this day he is said to have set Rome on fire. Meanwhile, research often takes a different path: that of the misunderstood, somewhat insane but basically harmless son of a vicious and power-hungry mother who, through a late marriage to Emperor Claudius, ensured that her son from a previous marriage became the next emperor.
- Original in Berlin, Gutmann Collection
- Height incl. base ca. 45cm
Nero's term of office
During his time in office, Nero stood out less for his political calculations and military finesse than for his many trips to Greece and his penchant for acting. This earned him much scorn from his fellow patricians. During his reign, Nero managed to make enemies of more and more powerful men. In the end, a new emperor was proclaimed and Nero was declared an enemy of the state. Only a little later he took his own life.
The portrait of Nero
The portraits of Nero (his name was later Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus) follow the Julio-Claudian tradition of ageless and youthful-dynamic faces. Nero shows himself mostly without recognizable age features, but he definitely deviates strongly from the scheme of his adoptive ancestors. His hair is much longer than the typical short hairstyle of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius. The bangs do not fall down into the forehead in neat little pincer and fork motifs, as is typical of the Julio-Claudian ruling house, but form a wreath of large sickle curls that completely encircle the face. His somewhat speckled face is framed by a short chin beard, which in some portraits appears downright unkempt.
Now and then he can also be seen with the beginnings of a mustache fuzz. In his entire conception of rulership, Nero thus turns away in a certain way from his predecessors, but he cannot completely leave them behind - although the new governmental construct is now stable, Nero is merely the late adopted son of Claudius, who is also very unpopular. His claim to rule must be legitimized and for this he resorts to the Augustan pictorial tradition.
Replica of the bust of Nero in the Roman Shop
The replica of the bust of Nero from our Roman Shop shows the head and face of the fascinating emperor in his typical manner of representation and with an impressive height of 45 centimeters. Made from high quality alabaster plaster according to an original model from the Berlin private collection Gutmann.
PS. Convince yourself of the museum quality of the bust of our German manufacture!
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