Live Auction 6277Harewood: Collecting in The Royal Tradition
A CARVED MARBLE BUST OF THE EMPEROR CARACALLA
Lot 507

A CARVED MARBLE BUST OF THE EMPEROR CARACALLA

AFTER THE ANTIQUE, WORKSHOP OF BARTOLOMEO CAVACEPPI (1719-1799), SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

Closed5 December 2012

Price Realised

GBP 34,850

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A CARVED MARBLE BUST OF THE EMPEROR CARACALLA
AFTER THE ANTIQUE, WORKSHOP OF BARTOLOMEO CAVACEPPI (1719-1799), SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY
Depicted facing to sinister; on a circular grey marble socle; minor chips
20¾ in. (52.4 cm.) high; 27½ in. (69.4 cm.) high, overall

Photographed in the Entrance Hall at Harewood House circa 1890 and by descent at Harewood House, Yorkshire.

Specialist note

History seems to have had a bitter-sweet love affair with the emperor Caracalla. He is described in the Historia Augusta as having had an evil mode of life. 'He was gluttonous in his use of food and addicted to wine, hated by his household and detested in every camp save that of the Praetorian Guard' (C. Scarre,Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, London, 1998, pp. 138-146). Yet also attributed to his name is the architectural splendour of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and many military victories including those against Germany in AD 213 and the Parthians in AD 216. He is commonly represented looking too sinister with square and heavy features and his trademark frowning brow. Antique versions of his portrait can be seen in the Museo Nazionale, Naples and the British Museum, London.