Italy, Roman / c. 238 CE
Relief Portrait Head of the Emperor Balbinus
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Relief Portrait Head of the Emperor Balbinus as sculpture (Italy, Roman · c. 238 CE).
Carved in deep relief (not quite in the round), this head comes from a large sarcophagus.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as marble.
The museum's collection notes: Wearing a laurel wreath, this head belongs to the little-known Emperor Balbinus, who ruled the empire together with Pupienus for only 99 days in AD 238, the now infamous Year of the Six Emperors. Following his death at the hands of an angry mob, Balbinus and his wife (whose name remains unknown) nevertheless received a large and impressive marble sarcophagus. The couple recline together on the lid, and appear twice in relief on the front, where this head originally belonged. Remarkably, although the head was purchased in Rome in 1925, two years before the sarcophagus was discovered (in many pieces near the Praetextatus Catacombs in Rome), it
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The Cleveland Museum of ArtRelief Portrait Head of the Emperor BalbinusOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.