Head of a Bearded Man (c. 125 CE): Art, History and Details

Head of a Bearded Man (c. 125 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This small-scale portrait depicts a bearded man turned toward his left. His close-cropped hair is combed forward in artful waves, echoed in his short beard. While parts of the chest and shoulders have been lost, the projecting element underneath suggests this portrait was intended as a bust. Beards were uncommon in Rome until the emperor Hadrian (r. 117–38 CE) popularized them during his reign. This man’s grooming is so similar to the emperor’s that he was first thought to be Hadrian; however, the face is too angular. Wealthy and noble Romans would often depict themselves with the same styles as the imperial family.

Object facts

• Title: Head of a Bearded Man
• Date: c. 125 CE
• Culture: Italy, Roman
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1924.535

A detail from the museum

This head was probably originally displayed against a wall or in a niche.

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Three Greek and Roman Heads." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11, no. 9 (November 1924): 181-182.
• Bieber, Margarete, "Roman Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art" Art in America. Vol. 32, No. 2: April, 1944. pp. 65-83

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.