Head-portrait of a Celt

Photogallery

Head-portrait of a Celt
Head-portrait of a Celt
Rooms V and VI. Architectural and votive terracottas

This portrait, modelled directly in clay and not using a mould, possibly formed part of a votive statue. It has very characteristic features that would suggest it to be an unknown person of Celtic stock. The individual traits include a low forehead, protruding ears, wrinkles, short moustaches and thick hair with full curls. In this evocative portrait of a “barbarian” there converge the stylistic features of high Hellenistic portraiture combined with the contemporary Middle Italic tradition, in which there was a preference for accentuating individual characteristics and a certain expressiveness. Examples include the famous bronze portrait of the “Capitoline Brute”, with its tight elongated lips, and also the pictorial “portrait” of the Vel Saties in the François tomb of Vulci, in which the feature of the short moustaches recurs.