dylanzink: “The portrait was an important means of political expression in Roman times: statue
dylanzink:“The portrait was an important means of political expression in Roman times: statues of the emperor erected in all public places (theater, forum) were for the population of the empire the everyday mark of Roman authority and presence.Hadrian paid particular attention to his image, as the five hundred or so portraits that have come down to us indicate: with the exception of Augustus, no other emperor has left us as many images of himself.Moreover, the portraits of Hadrian are of particular interest where the history of Roman portraiture is concerned. From Hadrian’s reign onward, sculptors began to show the iris and pupil of the eyes in their marble portraits, no longer by painting them, but by sculpting them. Hadrian, the philhellene, also introduced the custom of wearing a beard, like the Greek philosophers; this fashion was not that of his predecessors but was adopted by almost all the Roman emperors up to the fourth century.” (x) -- source link
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