ROMAN SCULPTURE

 I've been searching the net for cheap, good quality plaster replicas of a couple of my favorite sculptures. So far the results haven't been very encouraging but I'll persist. Near the top of my list would be a replica of the so-called "Brutus Bust," an Etruscan-style portrait of a Roman subject from the third century B.C. This is too early to have been a portrait of the Brutus who killed Caesar, but then...who was he?

The book I got this picture from describes this head as being that of "an obstinate peasant, marked by suffering but by no means bowed, and knowing how to bear his lot with dignity." Wow! I'd love to have a decent replica of this.

For comparison, here's (above) a bust of the Brutus who killed his friend Julius Caesar for what he believed was the good of Rome. There's competing depictions of that Brutus, but I trust the accuracy of this one because it was commissioned by his family who must have known what the real man looked like. It's an interesting face, no?

If you liked the black and white photo of the Brutus Bust, then you might be interested in this bronze (above) from the same period. It's from the Getty Villa outside of LA. It's so similar to the theme and technique of the other sculpture that I'm guessing it was executed by the same man. If I'm right, then that sculptor, who's name we don't know, was surely one of the best Roman artists ever to work in that medium.