Portrait Head of a Young Boy

Inscriptions

Not signed.

Label

The characteristic comma-shaped hair, prominent ears, and weak, indented chin identify this sculpture as an example of the Julio-Claudian style. Inspired by the Greeks, emperors in the Julio-Claudian dynasty represented themselves with idealized statuary. Unlike their Greek predecessors, however, they included certain individualistic details to make themselves recognizable. The sculpture’s widely spaced eyes and large ears are usually associated with the dynasty’s later emperors—Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero. In this case, the sculpture’s puffy cheeks and soft features indicate that the portrait may represent one of these emperors as a child.

Wealthy Roman families would model statues of their own children after the imperial family. This head, originally sculpted in high relief, was likely broken off a funerary relief commissioned for one of these families’ children.

From the 2024 exhibition Ancient Narratives: A New Look at Old Art, curated by Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

ANTH 7, Thinking About Empire, Alan Covey, Winter 2014

CLST 6, Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Roger Ulrich, Fall 2014

CLST 06, Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Flint Dibble, Fall 2020

SART 17.08, Digital Drawing, Karol Kawiaka, Fall 2020

CLST 06, Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Flint Dibble 1, Fall 2020

COCO 26.01, What's in Your Toolbox?, Heidi Denzel and Mokhtar Bouba, Fall 2022

COCO 26.01, What's in Your Toolbox?, Heidi Denzel and Mokhtar Bouba, Fall 2022

Anthropology 3.01, Introduction to Anthropology, Charis Ford Morrison Boke, Summer 2023

Classical Studies 6.01, Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Margaretha Kramer, Fall 2023

Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Floriana Ciniglia, Winter 2024

Religion 4.01, Jewish Studies 4.01, Religion of Israel: Hebrew Bible, Susan Ackerman, Winter 2024

Studio Art 16.01, Sculpture I, Matt Siegle, Winter 2024

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2024

Geography 21.01, International Studies 18.01, Global Health and Society, Anne Sosin, Spring 2024

Classical Studies 12.02, Greek and Roman Engineering and Technology, Margaretha Kramer, Spring 2024

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 64, Faces of Antiquity, Portraiture of the Roman Empire, Kasia Vincunas, Mellon Special Project Curatorial Intern, Class of 2011, Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 13-June 2011.

Ancient and Premodern Global Cultures, Gene Y. Kim Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019.

Ancient Profiles: Sculpture, Prints, and Coins from the Permanent Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art History 1, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 1-December 17, 1997.

Artifacts of the Roman Empire, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 18-November 5, 1990.

Critical Faculties: Teaching with the Hood's Collections, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 15-March 13, 2005.

Fred Wilson, So Much Trouble in the World - Believe It or Not!, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 4-December 11, 2005.

Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985, Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 13, 2000-December 23, 2004.

Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985, Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 19-November 30, 2008.

Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985, Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 28-April 12, 1994.

Glimpses of Ancient Life, Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art's Collection of Ancient Art, Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985 Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 19, 2000.

Global Cultures at the Hood: Ancient to Premodern, Gene Y. Kim Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26. 2019.

Publication History

Barbara Thompson, Fred Wilson, So Much Trouble in the World - Believe It or Not!, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2005.

Ada Cohen and Jeremy B. Rutter, eds., Constructions of Childhood in Ancient Greece and Italy, Princeton, New Jersey: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2007, 429 pp., cover ill. and p. 5.

Kasia Vincunas, Mellon Special Project Curatorial Intern, Class of 2011, A Space for Dialogue 64, Faces of Antiquity, Portraiture of the Roman Empire, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2011, ill. p. 3.

Investigations into the Ancient Mediterranean, Special Hood Website: The Yale University Art Gallery Collection-Sharing Initiative, 2012

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 74, ill. plate no. 5.

Provenance

Collected by George Ticknor (1791-1871), Boston, Massachusetts, probably in Europe, about 1815-1835; to his daughter, Eliza (Mrs. William) Sullivan Ticknor Dexter (1833-1880), about 1871; to her son, Philip Dexter (1868-1934), about 1880; to his son, William Dexter (1897-1943), about 1934; to his wife, Constance Van Rensselaer Thayer Dexter (1900-1976), 1943; given to Dartmouth College, 1943; catalogued by present collection, 1965.

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