Antiquities & Ancient Art

Provenance: 

Dr. Edward Gans Collection, USA, 1970s.

Summa Galleries, Beverly Hills, Auction 1, 18 September 1981, Lot 133.

with Galerie Cahn, Basel, Switzerland, 2020. [Inv. no. L-15171]

(Art Loss Register no. S00156464)

Exhibited:

The European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht, 7-15 March 2020.

In the foreground, two bearded men in profile face each other. The laurel wreaths in their hair indicate that they are emperors. The beard and physiognomic characteristics suggest that Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla are represented. The latter was appointed co-regent by his father in 197 A.D. and assumed sole rule after his father’s death and the murder of his brother Geta in 211 A.D. Only the front part of the profile faces of the people in the second row is visible and both have no beard. As on the famous tondo in the Antikensammlung Berlin (tempera on panel), Caracalla's brother Geta and, facing them, their mother Julia Domna (the hairline is suggestive of her characteristic wavy coiffure) are depicted. A similar combination of two generations is also found on the so-called Gemma Claudia: Emperor Claudius and his wife Agrippina the Younger are portrayed opposite her parents Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. The identification of the persons portrayed makes this cameo a rare, highly significant example of Roman political art. From the Augustan Principate onwards, art was used as a highly effective means of legitimizing and strengthening the power of the imperial family.