[MUSIC PLAYING] DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Before
the emperor ruled Rome, Rome was ruled by a
republic, by a senate. DR. BETH HARRIS: A kind
of counsel of elders. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
These generally were older men, who had
come from the elite families in Rome. And so when we think of the
people accorded the most privilege, the most power
in the Roman Republic, these were older men. And their age, their
experience, is what counted. DR. BETH HARRIS: And so
we find during this period of the Republic,
especially the period of the late
Republic, sculptures. This sculptor seems to
have taken every pain to record a real sense
of age and experience. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: One
example of a veristic portrait is in the Vatican, from the
very late Republican period. This is just before
Julius Caesar will begin the
process of turning the Republic into an empire. We refer to these as
veristic portraits. DR. BETH HARRIS: That
comes from the Latin word "verus," for truth. And so there's this idea
that they're very truthful, but maybe there's
an exaggeration of that sense of experience
and wisdom and age. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We see a
head of a man that probably came from a much larger
sculpture, ultimately. We see his head is
covered with a toga, which suggests that he was involved
in some sort of ritual. Concern is expressed
through the eyes. Look at the way that the
lips, which are quite thin, are pressed together. There is a solemnity,
there is a seriousness. There is a kind
of authority that is born of the qualities of
the face that we're seeing. DR. BETH HARRIS: As we
look at this shelf with six or eight busts along it,
this face stands out. It's really different
from the tradition that will develop during the Empire. Augustus becomes the
first emperor of Rome and establishes a tradition that
looks back to ancient Greece, and the tendency that
we see there to idealize the human face and
the human body. So this kind of
veristic portrait will come to represent, later
on, noble republican ideals. What's interesting
is that we see, in the later images of
emperors, that they choose to some degree, more or
less, to idealize themselves. So that if they have themselves
portrayed more realistically, they're recalling the virtues
of the ancient Roman Republic. If they idealize
themselves more, they're recalling an
ancient Greek tradition. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
So in other words, this was a very conscious
set of attributes. It was a very conscious
set of symbols that you could draw
on, more or less. DR. BETH HARRIS: It
was a visual language. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
It's so interesting if you think about the way that
we represent ourselves now. If you open up a magazine,
you have young models that are ideal,
that are perfect. And the older are not
given primary status, in our visual culture. But the ancient Romans, at least
for a moment, felt differently. [MUSIC PLAYING]