How accurate are ancient history busts?
Upvote:0
Some busts and statues were made when the person was alive, others were copied from these. So in some cases one can be reasonably certain that there is a close similarity with the original. I suppose this applies to all Roman emperors, for example. Probably to the busts of some famous Greeks, like Pericles, or Greek/Macedonian rulers of Egypt and other Hellenistic states. As a check we have coins with the portraits of many of those personages. Certain faces of antiquity are easily recognizable because of the multitude of depictions of the same person which have a lot of similarity.
Upvote:1
Ancient Egypt
I asked myself this question just the other day and done a little online searching.
According to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, sculptures displaying true likeness were a rarety in Ancient Egypt.
Sculptures portraying true likenesses of people (rather than highly stylized portrayals) are rare in Ancient Egyptian art, both before and after the creation of Ankhhaf's bust.2
Ancient Egyptian bust, by Lthomas2
Greek and Roman
Overall, Roman portrait sculptures are claimed to be more reliable than their Greek or Egyptian counterparts, though admittedly, there is no source for this claim outside of Wikipedia.
Social and psychological aspect, wikipedia
Unlike the ancient Greek portraits that strived for idealization (the Greeks believed that a good man must be beautiful), Roman portrait sculpture was far more natural and is still considered one of the most realistic samples of the genre in the history of art.
#/media/File:Prince_Ankhaf_at_MFAB.jpg){kind=link}
,_Pompeii,_c._79_AD,_National_Archaeological_Museum,_Naples_-_Spurlock_Museum,_UIUC_-_DSC05672_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
More post
- 📝 Do any churches continue to display length measures?
- 📝 Are modern handguns a major reason for democratization?
- 📝 Who is Ludovico Bourbon?
- 📝 Why was Oslo I Accord so harsh or controversial?
- 📝 What's the difference between Route Army and Army Group?
- 📝 Did Jeanne d'Arc really tell a woman that she couldn't serve on the battlefield?
- 📝 Why of all units is Time standard?
- 📝 Has there ever been a war between two service branches in the same country?
- 📝 Was there a precursor to the Bolshevik Party?
- 📝 Why conceal the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus?
- 📝 Why did Antiochus IV of the Seleucids work so hard to keep Coele-Syra from Ptolemy VI of Eygpt?
- 📝 To what degree has the historical effectiveness of non-violent resistance movements been impacted by parallel violent resistance movements?
- 📝 How Was Roman Military Equipment Created and Distributed
- 📝 Why was wearing an orange lily so offensive as to warrant assault in Ireland in 1845?
- 📝 Why did the Sykes-Picot agreement divided the middle east into more than 10 countries?
- 📝 What's the reason for wider streets in East Germany?
- 📝 When and by whom was the Tirupati Tirumala temple in India built?
- 📝 How were noblewomen named/titled in Medieval France, c. 11th century?
- 📝 Why did Lord Mountbatten shrink the timeline for the withdrawal of British troops from India?
- 📝 Was the Battle of Trafalgar strategically pointless?
- 📝 Who invented the Airplane?
- 📝 Why did this anti-communist pamphlet, from the USA in the 1950s, include UNESCO among its targets?
- 📝 Where can I find high-resolution images of these Sumerian tablets
- 📝 Why is Papadopoulos such a common surname in Greece?
- 📝 Apart from Australia, has a serving head of government or state disappeared without trace?
- 📝 How is the term "medieval" used to describe non-European civilizations and cultures?
- 📝 Why was Patriarch Nikon removed from power?
- 📝 Did an English company famous for its hidden purpose in the 1720s ever reveal its undertaking?
- 📝 Where is Ernst Kummer's grave located?
- 📝 What does this spear & carpentry square symbol mean?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How accurate are ancient history busts?
- 📝 How accurate and balanced is Paul Johnson's 'A History of the Jews'?
- 📝 Are there examples in ancient history of honor killing?
- 📝 How objective are books like "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind"? How are they "proven"?
- 📝 How historically accurate are the subplots about poison gas and false flag assassinations in Babylon Berlin?
- 📝 Are the historical sources from the ancient history trustable?
- 📝 How widely accepted are Tolstoy's views on history within the academic community?
- 📝 How accurate is Belloc's version of European economic history in The Servile State, with regards to the seizing of the monastic lands?
- 📝 How historically accurate are the Assassin's Creed games?
- 📝 How did people distinguish slaves from free people in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 How accurate or supported is Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel"?
- 📝 How did they cook on ancient ships?
- 📝 How do ancient Chinese "mirrors" such as these in the National Museum function?
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 How would a king's servants prove that they are on a task given by the king?
- 📝 Are modern Greeks related to the ancient Greeks?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 How did the ancient Greeks synchronize time?
- 📝 Did Aztecs know how many continents there are on earth?
- 📝 When did the term "Nationality" first come into use? How did ancient civilizations refer to themselves? By ethnicity?
- 📝 How prevalent were recreational drugs in the ancient world?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 How would slaves have addressed their masters in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 How were books published in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 How to explain the apparent discrepancy in the use of papyrus vs. clay tablets between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?
- 📝 How did ancient empires account for slow propagation of information e.g. in their legal codes?
- 📝 How did Christianity replace Roman Paganism and other ancient religions?
- 📝 Are there ancient historical sources which have been permanently lost?
- 📝 How accurately could ancient astronomers find latitude and longitude?
- 📝 How accurate and detailed were geographical maps created and updated by the Romans?