Commodus Bust

Emperor Commodus (Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus), a member of the Antonini dynasty, born in 161 AD, succeeded his father Marcus Aurelius in 180 and was killed in 192.
The marble bust of Commodus was once placed among the portraits of Roman emperors that decorated the Grand Gallery in the Royal Palace of Turin (in the inventory of 1631 it is described as "a head of the Imp.re Commodus with an armed chest").
The image of the emperor is characterized by the dense processing in furrows traced with the drill of the articulated mass of the hair and beard that stretches in single curly locks up to the neck and almost entirely covers the cheeks. The head of ancient manufacture, dating back to the final years of his reign (192 AD circa), fits into a modern Renaissance bust, dating back to the second half of the 16th century, with the mantle (paludamentum) gathered on the shoulder left and stopped by a fibula. In the center of the cuirass the head of the Gorgon is depicted, with a fierce expression. The effigy, placed as an ornament of the armor of the Roman emperors, recalls the myth of Perseus and the Gorgon. Perseus, with the help of Minerva beheaded one of the three Gorgons, the terrifying Medusa with the hair of snakes.