Grand Tour Bust In Statuary Marble, African Marble, And Holy Marble — Roman Emperor, Rome, 18th Century

A fine Grand Tour bust depicting a Roman emperor—traditionally identified as Augustus—executed using the refined technique of two-tone marble rendering, which was characteristic of 18th-century Roman decorative sculpture. The head, modeled with great skill, is carved from very fine-grained white statuary marble, with the hair rendered in short, compact locks at the front and more tousled at the back, in keeping with the Augustan portraiture style. The bust is made of African marble, whose brown surface, crisscrossed by red and white veins, lends the piece a striking chromatic effect. The turned support column is made of red Porta Santa marble, a material of great prestige in the decorative tradition of the Ancien Régime. The piece is a typical and refined example of the works produced for travelers on the Grand Tour, who considered such polychrome marble busts among the most sought-after souvenirs of their stay in Rome.