Many Roman statues lost their heads for a number of reasons. Some were natural causes, but some were intentionally decapitated. |
Rachel Kousser, professor of art history and classics at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York, offers several reasons why many Roman statues lost their heads. |
According to Professor Rachel, the first and simplest reason why many statues lose their heads is because of the neck - which is a natural weak point in the human body. When a statue falls during display or transportation or when changing hands, the neck is often the first place to break. |
But broken heads weren't always an accident. Sometimes, Romans deliberately destroyed them. In a process called "damnatio memoriae," the Roman Senate could vote to vandalize the head of a hated emperor after his death. |
If passed, the Senate would erase the emperor's name from records and documents, confiscate property, and destroy portraits and statues of him. |
According to Professor Rachel, the infamous Roman emperor Nero is a prime example of this. After his death, many of his portraits and statues were destroyed. |
Kenneth Lapatin, curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, said that ancient Roman sculptors sometimes intentionally designed statues with removable heads. This design allowed them to use different materials for the body and face, allowing multiple sculptors to work on the same statue, or even replace the head in the future. |
These statues are easily recognizable because the body has a hole for the sculptor to insert the neck, and the head also has a smoothly carved edge instead of a jagged one. |
Some Roman statues were deliberately vandalized, with their heads deliberately removed. Kenneth said some Roman statues are of great value on the antiquities market. |
Unscrupulous art dealers realized that they could make more money by selling two objects instead of one. So they deliberately separated the head from the statue and tried to sell it for a high price. Art collectors would try to buy the two pieces to get the complete statue. |
Readers are invited to watch the video: Decoding the secret that has helped the Roman wonder stand firm for more than 2,000 years.
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