Emperor Marcus Aurelius

The portrait of Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161 – 180 AD) no longer conveys an impression of a determined commander and politician, as embodied by some of his predecessors. His head and eyes are turned somewhat to the right and his gaze passes over the observer. The gaunt facial features, furrowed brow andalmost melodramatically tense eyebrows as well as the large eyes and heavy eyelids so typical of Marcus Aurelius are indications of the burden of his high office.The portrait shows the style of hair and beard that the emperor wore in the final decade of his life, between 170 and 180 AD. His curls are styled and appear to have been “set”, but his hair sweeps up at the forehead, and his beard is visibly longer than in earlier portraits. In the style of the time, drilling was used to make the hair appear sculptural, and the characteristic light-and-shadow effect of his curls provides a delightful contrast to the smoothly polished surface of the skin. Curly hair and beards had been back in fashion since Hadrian (reigned 117 –138 AD) and were considered characteristic of the experienced solider and graecophile philosopher. The head has been set on a non-matching chest and shoulders with a commander’s cloak (paludamentum) worn over armour (the dress of a Roman general). A rosette was added later on the shoulder to replace a fibula. Portraits of the type on which this was based are identified and dated on the basis of two busts now in the Museo Capitolino in Rome. The life of Marcus Aurelius was marked, on the one hand, by his concerns about the empire, the growing threat from Germanic peoples beyond the Danube and the war against the Parthians in the east and, on the other, by his great interest in philosophy. This portrait underscores our impression of the “spiritualisation” of the mature emperor. His literary legacy, the Meditations, which he began writing in Greek in 170 AD, is marked by growing pessimism and recognition of his own imperfection.
© Kurt Gschwantler, Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Manuela Laubenberger, Georg Plattner, Karoline Zhuber-Okrog, Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2011