PORTRAIT DU GÉNÉRAL M.L CRASSUS (V.114 AV. - 53... Lot 77

PORTRAIT DU GÉNÉRAL M.L CRASSUS (V.114 AV. - 53 AV.J.-C.) Art romain, début de l’ère augustéenne Marbre blanc Dim_ 37,1 x 17,7 x 22,4 cm Provenance Paris, collection privée acquis sur le marché de l’art parisien A ROMAN AUGUSTEAN MARBLE PORTRAIT OF THE GENERAL M.C. CRASSIUS, 1ST CENTURY A.D. 14,5 x 7 x 9 in. The head is turned slightly to the left, and characterized by the hallmarks of the late Republican portraiture. The hair pulled back over the forehead and the temples in soft locks cut out a rectangular forehead crisscrossed with two horizontal wrinkles in the center. Two other wrinkles start from the base of the nose underligning the frown - the latter represented by a fine, fairly straight marble projection above the right eye, more raised at the outer part of the left eye.The eyes are sunken into the orbit, framed by thick upper lids ending outwardly in well-noted crow’s feet wrinkles. The rounded indented lower eyelids are marked with dark circles. Deep wrinkles line the nostrils at the corners of the mouth - the latter finely sculpted with thin lips and a well-drawn cupid’s bow. The prominent chin is split in two towards a slight indentation that widens into a bulge of flesh joining the furrows of the cheeks on the neck. The neck sinews accentuate the tension of the sexagenarian face. From the uncompromising play of wrinkles, the solidity of the features, the delicacy of the physiognomy, the personality of the politician-warrior emerges. This portrait is to be compared to the one conserved in the Louvre and now attributed to a republican high-rank man, inv. Ma 1220 (fig. 1) and whose postmortem production is to be date at the beginning of the augustean era (Boschung1). Boschung justifies its type making a comparison with the funerary relief of the two spouses from the Via Statilia (Rome, Centrale Montemarmi. 2142), which due to the woman’s hairstyle is dated around the middle of the 1st century B.C. According to him, the portrait of Crassus and the man in the relief are designed in the same formal language - similar crow’s feet and cheek folds (fig. 2). Raeder2, on the other hand, thinks that the portrait of Crassus should be placed after the relief of Via Statilia. He sees a relation between the type and the portrait of the Camposanto-Chiaramonti Caesar type (fig. 3) from the beginning of the augustean period. The two types have in common «the angular structure of the skull, the facial features marked with linear sharpness, the lips tightly closed in the form of a ribbon, the abundance of hair arranged in individual strands and in graduated layers on the crown and on the sides of the head and the stylization of the forehead hair ”. However, due to the fuller plasticity, the greater movement, the portrait of Crassus should be placed a little earlier than the portrait of Caesar, according to Raeder. Born around 114 B.C. AD in Rome and died in 53 B.C., Marcus Licinius Crassus was a roman general and politician was part of the triumvirat among Caesar and Pompeus. He played an essential role in the transition from Republic to Empire. Having amassed an immense fortune during his lifetime, he is considered the richest man in the history of Rome. As early as 66, «rich as Crassus» had become a proverbial expression. Due to his immense wealth, the nickname of Dives («the rich») has stuck to his name, as Cicero writes3; but this nickname had already been attached for five generations to his family, one of the most illustrious of the nobility of consular origin. Indeed, after the death of his brother and the suicide of his father, Crassus inherited a considerable heritage estimated at 1,800,000 denarii. Crassus began his statesman career as a military commander under Lucius Cornelius Sylla during the Second Civil War. After Sylla’s victory and his rise as dictator, he amassed a huge fortune through real estate speculation. Crassus imposed himself on the Roman political scene after his victory over the rebellious slaves of Spartacus, sharing the consulate with his rival Pompeius. La tête est légèrement tournée vers la gauche, d’un réalisme caractéristique de la portraiture tardo-républicaine. La chevelure rabattue sur le front et les tempes en mèches souples découpe un front rectangulaire sillonné de deux rides horizontales infléchies au centre. Deux autre rides partent de la base du nez accompagnant le froncement des sourcils – ces derniers représentés par un fin ressaut du marbre assez rectiligne au-dessus de l’oeil droit, plus relevé à la partie externe de l’oeil gauche. Les yeux sont enfoncés dans l’orbite, encadrés par des paupières supérieures épaisses se terminant vers l’extérieur par des pattes d’oie bien notées. Les paupières inférieures échancrées en arrondi sont marquées de cernes. De