Morphing Giulio Cesare: da Aquinum a Tusculum

La testa di Cesare (a sinistra) è stata trovata ad Aquinum. L'eccezionale scoperta è dovuta agli archeologi diretti da Giuseppe Ceraudo, dell’Università del Salento. A destra c'è il volto del Cesare di Tuscolo sovrapposto alla testa di Aquinum.

Leiden bust of Caesar (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) Morphing with Tusculum bust.

This is a morphing of the Leiden bust of Julius Caesar. From the left: Leiden bust, 2/3 Leiden and 1/3 Tusculum bust, 1/3 Leiden and 2/3 Tusculum, the face of Tusculum on the Leiden head.

Lifelike rendering of the morphing

Comparing the Profiles of Caesar's Heads given by the Pantelleria Marble Bust and by a Coin of 44 BC

Comparing the Profiles of Caesar's Heads given by the Pantelleria Marble Bust and by a Coin of 44 BC: Here we want to show an interesting fact concerning the profile of the Caesar’s head, which is portrayed in the Pantelleria marble bust. It is the same of the portrait of Caesar given by a coin of 44 BC. The coin was struck just after Caesar's refusal of the crown offered by Mark Antony during the Lupercalia.

The Profiles of Caesar's Heads given by Tusculum and Pantelleria Marbles

The Profiles of Caesar's Heads given by Tusculum and Pantelleria Marbles: Here we want to show a comparison of the profiles of Julius Caesar’s head, as portrayed in Tusculum and in Pantelleria marbles. These profiles are in good agreement and are in good agreement to that given in a coin of 44 BC, struck one month before Caesar’s assassination.

The Green Caesar

The Green Caesar is a portrait of Gaius Julius Caesar made of green slate kept in the Antikensammlung Berlin with the inventory number Sk 342, which was probably made in the first century AD

Silhouettes. Tusculum bust and coins - 1

This article https://www.carotta.de/subseite/texte/articula/CesareTuscolo_CorriereDelTicino.pdf  published on the Corriere del Ticino in 2017 tell us  some information about the Tusculum bust, a portraiture of Julius Caesar, today at the Archaeological Museum of Torino.
This is a translation from the article written by Francesco Carotta entitled Il Cesare Incognito.

"The story of the discovery of the Tusculum bust has some humor in it. The marble head was found in Tusculum by Luciano Bonaparte. Luciano made profit with the antiquities, in particular those emerging from the ruins of that pleasant town among the Alban Hills (near today's Frascati), where the Roman nobility had built the villas, a famous one was that of Cicero. He used these antiquities to refund his huge debts. However, he did not realize that he had in his hands an original portrait of Caesar, which would have allowed him to restore his financial health. The bust then remained unsold and passed to the House of Savoy. With some others items of Lucien Bonaparte's collection, the bust was taken to the Castle of Agliè, where, a century and a half later, in 1940, archaeologist Maurizio Borda, comparing the profile with some coins of Caesar, recognized that Caesar was portrayed in it."

Maurizio Borda, vissuto nella prima metà del XX secolo, fu archeologo, ricercatore e docente universitario, storico e incaricato presso la Direzione Generale delle Antichità e Belle Arti di Roma al Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione. In qualità di archeologo, si occupò degli scavi della città di Tusculum negli anni dal 1952 al 1955. Attribuì a Giulio Cesare un ritratto in marmo riscoperto proprio a Tusculum, ritratto che oggi viene considerato l'unica rappresentazione certa del dittatore. Sistemò il primo Museo Tuscolano del dopoguerra aperto nel 1954 nel castello della curia vescovile di Frascati, poi i vari reperti del museo furono spostati alle Scuderie Aldobrandini.

Let us use the coin of August 43 BC. AR Denarius 43 BC. Rome mint. L Flaminius Chilo. Laureate head right within pelleted border. From a picture of the profile of the Tusculum bust, we can obtain a silhouette (in red). Superposing to the coin, we have a remarkable coincidence.

Julius Caesar - Coin - 44 BC

Magnifico profilo. Testa piccola.

Wreathed head of Caesar right, behind crescent; before, CAESAR·IM downwards; behind P M upwards. Border of dots. As explained by http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/acans/caesar/Career_Coins.htm

it was struck just after Caesar's refusal of the crown at Lupercalia.

On the Lupercalia, let us read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia and https://www.etymonline.com/word/february

It is possible that the world Lupercalia derived from lupus, "wolf," though both the etymology and its significance are obscure [1]. Lupercalia was a very ancient, even  pre-Roman pastoral , annual festival,[2] observed in Rome on February 15, to avert the evil spirits and purify the city. Lupercalia was also called "dies Februatus", purified (literally "februated day") after the fumes of purification (https://www.etymonline.com/word/february). 

The Lupercalia had its own priesthood, the Luperci, whose institution and rites were attributed either to the Arcadian culture-hero Evander, or to Romulus and Remus. The Luperci were young men. They formed two religious collegia based on ancestry; the Quinctiliani (named after gens Quinctia) and the Fabiani (named after gens Fabia). Each college was headed by a magister. In 44 BC, a third college, the Juliani, was instituted in honor of Julius Caesar; its first magister was Mark Antony.[10] The college of Juliani disbanded during civil wars, and was not re-established in the reforms of  Augustus. 

Descriptions of the Lupercalia festival of 44 BC attest to its continuity. During this Lupercalia, Julius Caesar refused three times a golden crown offered to him by Mark Antony.[17][18] 

The Tusculum Caesar

This is my reconstruction of the face of Giulius Caesar, in a lifelike style, that I have obtained from the Tusculum bust, today at the Archaeological Museum of Torino.

On d’Hollosy reconstruction of Caesar - continued

In the post of June 26, 2018
http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.com/2018/06/on-maja-dhollosy-reconstruction-of.html

I discussed the reconstruction of Caesar's head made by Maja d'Hollosy, proposed in http://www.rmo.nl/reconstructiecaesar. She used data from a Leiden bust and the Tusculum bust. So I measured two rectangles to compare the face of Tusculum bust and the face of d'Hollosy reconstruction. Here the result.

The rectangles of the Tusculum bust (left). Rectangles of a frontal view of Maja d’Hollosy’s 3D reconstruction (Courtesy: elu24.postimees.ee Kuvatõmmis/Youtube,  Let me stress that the image on the right is here used for scientific and cultural purposes). The sizes are in pixels.

To the reader, the exercise to evaluate the ratios. Differences are of about 10%.

However, a reader could tell me that I have not investigated the other bust used for the reconstruction, that which is in Leiden. Actually, the bust is in bad condition, so I "restored" digitally its image. And the result is the following. 

For comparison, I rotated a little the image. Here the result and comparison.

The rectangles of the Tusculum bust (left), of a frontal view of Maja d’Hollosy’s 3D reconstruction (middle) and Leiden head (right). The numbers (in pixels) are given to the reader, in such a manner that  any measurement and ratio can be easily evaluated. 

The most evident defect of the 3D  reconstruction is in the fact that it has the head which has a square as its frame, whereas the two busts have rectangles.  

Arles, Turin and Caesar

The heart of the ancient history of Arles, this is what is on show at the Louvre Museum of Paris, until 25 June 2012. The Museum is  hosting an exhibition of spectacular Roman pieces recovered from the bottom of the Rhone! From March 9 to June 25, 2012, the Louvre Museum in Paris

On exhibition fifty of the most spectacular artifacts unearthed by archaeologists: columns and capitals, fragments of statues and reliefs, Roman jewelery, lamps, vases ... These pieces are coming from the museum of Arles, and other pieces from Avignon, Vienne and Turin.
Among the pieces from Turin, you can admire Julius Caesar's bust, unearthed in 1825,  long considered unique, until the discovery in 2007 in Arles of another bust of the Roman politician. At the Louvre, these sculptures will be presented for the first time side by side.

http://www.france.fr/it/arti-e-cultura/evenement/arles-gli-scavi-del-rodano-un-fiume-memoria

   Arles

Torino

Un altro ritratto interessante è quello del busto Farnese, a Napoli

 Napoli