Portrait of an Emperor

This head once belonged to a statue of an emperor bearing a standard in its left hand. It is crowned with a double row of oak leaves and a jewel fixed above the forehead. The rear part of the wreath and neck are covered by a veil. The face has been reworked with a claw chisel at a later date. The smooth finish of the original surface can now only be seen above and below the eyelids, on the sides of the nose, on the temple to the left, at the corners of the mouth and at the top of the neck. It is hard to say whom the statue originally portrayed: perhaps Crispus, the son of Constantine, executed in 326. Since the reworking was never completed, it is not possible to say who would have been represented subsequently and why the likeness was never finished. Images of disgraced emperors were destroyed, as they were supposed to be forgotten: Damnatio memoriae – damnation of memory.