Portrait Head of C. Cornelius Gallus (?) (c. 30 BCE): Art, History and Details

Portrait Head of C. Cornelius Gallus (?) (c. 30 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This highly individual portrait must have been made for a man of considerable importance. It may represent Gaius Cornelius Gallus, who lived c. 69-26 BC. After aiding Octavian in the war against Antony and Cleopatra, Gallus served as the first governor of Egypt. There he put down two rebellions, but soon fell into disgrace and exile, eventually committing suicide. The head was made to be inserted into a body, and has a flat back and top, suggesting it once wore a separately made fold of toga draped over it (in the fashion known as togatus capite velato, associated with high priests). Some scholars have suggested a later date for this portrait, perhaps in the reign of Nero or Claudius.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait Head of C. Cornelius Gallus (?)
• Date: c. 30 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), Roman empire (30 BCE–395 CE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 39 x 22 x 22.6 cm (15 3/8 x 8 11/16 x 8 7/8 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1966.20

A detail from the museum

Traces of red paint remain, especially in the hair.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Golden Anniversary Acquisition,” 1966, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Stechow, Wolfgang. "Cleveland's Golden Anniversary Acquisitions." ARTNews 65, no. 5 (September 1966): 30-44, 62-64.

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.