Classical Western marble stone sculpture: Augustus the Patriarch
Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century, White marble, 2.08m, Vatican Museums, Rome.
It is a full-length portrait statue of Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Ancient Rome.
The statue, Carved by expert Greek sculptors, now in the Vatican Museums, depicts him as a stately and articulate commander-in-chief,
his cane symbolizing absolute power,
his weight resting on his stepped right foot and his right hand pointing forward as if giving orders to his troops.
In 31 BC, Augustus defeated the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium and became the sole ruler of the Roman world.
Augustus came from a family of knights, his grandfather had been a magistrate and his father a senator.
The marble statue was discovered in 1863 at the villa suburbana owned by Augustus’ third wife,
Livia Drusilla in Prima Porta, near Rome. Livia had retired to the villa after Augustus’s death in AD 14. the statue is assumed to be a copy of a lost bronze original displayed in Rome.
If you have the opportunity to travel, be sure to visit the The Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums。
