Annotating Roman Portrait Bust
Bust of Seneca ( 4 BC – 65 BC), 1st century AD, by a Roman artist, marble
Image from http://www.bridgemaneducation.com/ImageView.aspx?result=79&balid=165526 (Accessed 8 Dec 2011)
Portrait bust:
- Looks tired and exhausted (à eyes, mouth)
- He’s a thinker (wrinkles on his forehead)
- Worrying and feeling like the sense of the world, the whole demystification is on his shoulders (wrinkles between his eyes)
- Eyebrows sank down because of age – make him look like he is resigned but still a little hopeful – expression in eyes
- Open mouth – sighing pose?
- Hair – most portrait busts’ hair is portrait as curly and short – his is longer and falls freely without the restriction of a helmet from an armour, et cetera
- Is wrinkly – gives hint of age – middle aged man (also another indicator might be the nose as it grows with age, wondering about the ears tough – normally they get bigger when one gets older but his ears are quiet small – but maybe it only looks like that because of the hair?)
- Interesting are the deep wrinkles from his nose to his mouth – can be an indicator of age, that he has been laughing a lot (but I don’t think that because of his facial expression that he had when he got portrait)
- Eyebrow hair is very detailed (it’s the condition of the stone that makes it look like that) and one can kind of “see” every single hair
- Prominent chin that is framed by his beard
- Shape of his beard is typical Roman
- Nose shape can’t be identified because of the lightning or maybe because a piece was broken off from it
- The jaw line is very detailed with wrinkles and facial hair
- Mouth points downwards (is that another indicator of his age or is it the feeling of hopelessness – not being able to make sense of the world?)
- Naked from neck down? Where are his clothes?
- Looking closely at his left eye – it is more sunken in than the right one (maybe that’s because it is an image?) and his eyebrow is further down than the other one
- Big lower lip
- The shape of his beard around his mouth and the sad look around his eyes gives the first impression of hopelessness and sadness
- His beard is covering up parts of his upper lip
- His cheekbones are quiet fine
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What is he thinking about?
When exactly was this portrait bust made? – to give one more information about the overall time period and what was going on in the Roman empire which would maybe give a glimpse on what problems he is thinking about
Who was Seneca? (I know he is a philosopher, dramatist, et cetera; but I don’t know much about his life except for that?)
What was this portrait bust made for?
Was it made for private use or public displaying?
How old was Seneca when this portrait bust was made?
Who made this portrait bust?
Why does it look like Seneca isn’t wearing any clothes?
Research about Seneca:
I am not interested in learning all about his life e.g. who his brother was, how he grew up, what he did here and there – I am more interested in what kind of person he was – and I found these really great quotations from him and they kind of reflect his thinking manner that I thought was so interesting when I first saw the portrait bust.
“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger#Quotations
“The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger#cite_note-23
“Our minds must have relaxation: rested, they will rise up better and keener. Just as we must not force fertile fields (for uninterrupted production will quickly exhaust them), so continual labor will break the power of our minds. They will recover their strength, however, after they have had a little freedom and relaxation.” http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger
I think it’s so interesting that these quotes still work today – just looking around I can see too many people, sometimes including myself, chase after time complaining about not having enough time to do what they really want to do but really what they do is they spend their valuable time chasing after it instead of enjoying the full amount of it. Living in the present is another thing. Buddhists teach to live in the now, there are probably about a 100 books to read about living in the now these days but who really is?
Giving our minds freedom and don’t overwork is such a good quote right now to read – I don’t know if I am doing enough for this course or if I should do things in another way but I am just trying to enjoy this, give my mind freedom to do this. Over the past few days I was also wondering if this learning log is a good one – but when I went back to the study material and read about learning logs and it asked those three simple questions if I learn from what I write down – then yes this is a good learning log cause I am learning so many new things every day. I am enjoying it very much so far – I feel like I know so much more already since I’ve started this course, I am having immense fun reading new stuff every day, researching things that I like further on the internet, collecting images of things that interest me and I am not surprised that I love learning about sculptures almost all day long. I am one who enjoys looking at sculptures in museum, walk around them if possible and trying to catch every detail of it, so annotating sculptures, reliefs or portrait busts is a pleasure for me and I am really enjoying this.
Now I am off the computer for now and I am going to try drawing some classical figure sculptures...Maybe I can find a sculpture without head, hands and feet – because I am not good at drawing those features.
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