Julio Claudian Portraiture - Joe Geranio (Sister site of The Portraiture of Caligula at portraitsofcaligula.com Roman Coins, Ancient Rome, Roman History.

The portraiture of the Julio-Claudians is not an easy subject to examine. The essential goals of any such modern iconographic portrait study are, first, to assemble all known portraits of a given personage; second, to determine the appearance and style of each of the presumed lost prototypes on which all of the known surviving replicas are based; third, to attempt to date the creation of the lost prototype and surviving replicas and other portrait versions; and fourth to try to determine the reason(s) for the creation of each type. The main work to date that has been carried out is Boschung’s work, Die Bildnisse des Caligula.2 First a little history of the series inaugurated by the German Archaeological Institute. The Romische Herrscherbild project is an ambitious project to collect and publish in a series of volumes (currently 12) entrusted to different scholars all the surviving portraits of Roman emperors and their families. Progress had been unusually slow and the Romische Herrscherbild project is closer to completion then it was thirteen to fifteen years ago. For instance the comprehensive Die Bildnisse des Augustus, brought together by Boschung, who brought this magnum opus to completion within a remarkably short time. The portraits of the Julio- Claudian emperors4 Present special problems because so many of the Julio-Claudians look alike-in their official likenesses, that is, perhaps not in life. Hairstyles really are fundamental to establishing imperial typologies. In some ways, emperors
(princeps) wore hairstyles as these were badges of identity which helped distinguish them from other princeps and members from the imperial family. The same is true for imperial women and even a few private individuals.