The Sculpture Museum - Catalog - Page 42
bartolomeo cavaceppi (c. 1716–1799), workshop of
9
Rome, 2nd half 18th century
Portrait Bust of Young Commodus (161–192 ad)
After the Antique
White marble
72 cm (28¼ in.) high
fig. 1
Roman, 175–77 ad, Young Commodus,
marble, 74 cm high
Rome, Musei Capitolini
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi was celebrated in his own lifetime as a great artist,
restorer and art dealer. He was a favoured protégé of Cardinal Albani and a close
friend of Winckelmann and his impact on the path of Western art should not be
underestimated. He was a leading figure in a close society of Roman cultural elites
whose insatiable antiquarian spirit laid the foundations for the great Neoclassical
revival in eighteenth-century Europe.
Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus – usually known as Commodus,
was the son of Marcus Aurelius and the last member of the Antonine dynasty
of Roman Emperors. He assumed the imperial throne at the age of eighteen on
the death of his father and re-founded Rome as ‘Colonia Commodiana’, even
having the months re-named after his various titles. However, he was eventually
overturned in a coup organized by members of the Praetorian Guard, the imperial
household and his concubine.
This work is after the famed portrait of young Commodus in Rome’s
Capitoline Museums (fig. 1). Ancient portraits of the philosopher-Emperor Marcus
Aurelius (r. 161–80 ad) and his son Commodus (r. 177–92 ad) achieved new heights
of psychological expression that often reflected changes in their physical and
mental condition, their personality and character. This style of portraiture reached
its zenith in the reign of the Severan Emperor Caracalla (r. 211–17 ad). The bust
of young Commodus was popular among Grand Tourists and a number ordered
newly carved versions of it from the finest Neoclassical sculptors working in Rome
during the second half of the eighteenth century. His wavy, tightly curled locks of
hair and the sweeping folds of his toga gave ambitious Neoclassical sculptors the
opportunity to display their skill and compare themselves not only to the ancients
but also to their contemporaries and rivals.
related literature
C. Picon, Bartolomeo Cavaceppi: Eighteenth- century restorations of ancient marble sculpture
from English private collections, exh. cat., The Clarendon Gallery, London, 1983
E. La Rocca and C. Parisi Presicce, eds., Musei Capitolini: Le Sculture del Palazzo Nuovo,
Rome, 2010, pp. 452–45
