This portrait has all the best things: basanite (the hard dark stone is perhaps my favorite), a dab hand at defacement (of the zealous Late Antique kind), and the (fabricated?) features of the Gens Julii shining through the shined up face of its adoptive son Germanicus.
Promising young Germanicus might have been Augustus’ top pick for successor were it not for the machinations of his wife (Livia of the odious nodus), who propelled Tiberius to the fore instead. Germanicus was brought into the fold via adoption by Tiberius, which makes the strong stylistic cues ‘placing’ him within the facial framework of the imperial framework all the more fun!
But what’s really staring us in the face, is the graffito carefully carved smack in the center of his forehead. The cross (Late Antique and Byzantinist friends…does its shape tell much about date?) along with the cleanly broken nose seems to be an intentional (and effective) mode of disfigurement by a disgruntled Christian with a pointy implement and a lot of elbow grease.
The intent was usually to negate the power of this pagan grandee, whose identity might have mattered little so many centuries later. Ironically, makes it all the more fascinating to my modern eyes…
(I’m a sucker for moody photographs with dramatic lighting and black backgrounds, and this first shot from the British Museum’s excellent website does not disappoint!)
