Augustus of Prima Porta is a 2.04m high marble statue of Augustus Caesar which was discovered on April 20, 1863 in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, near Rome. His wife Livia Drusilla retired to the villa after his death. The sculpture is now displayed in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums.
The dating of the Primaporta piece is widely contested. It is thought to be a marble copy of a possible bronze original. This original, along with othe...
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Augustus of Prima Porta is a 2.04m high marble statue of Augustus Caesar which was discovered on April 20, 1863 in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, near Rome. His wife Livia Drusilla retired to the villa after his death. The sculpture is now displayed in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums.
The dating of the Primaporta piece is widely contested. It is thought to be a marble copy of a possible bronze original. This original, along with other high honors, was devoted to Augustus by the Senate in 20 BC and set up in a public place. Up until this time Augustus had lived modestly, but the fact that the statue was found in his widow's villa shows that he was thoroughly pleased with it.
It is also contested that this particular sculpture is a reworking in marble of a bronze original, possibly a gift from Tiberius Caesar to his mother Livia (since it was found in her Villa Ad Galinas in the vicinity of the ninth marker of the via Flaminia, and close to a late Imperial gate called Prima...
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