51 Gallery
June 2017 Auction 9 Jun 2017
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EMPIRE, GOLD AUREUS OF GALBA, Rome, ca. AD 68-69, 7.288g, 9h. Calicó 509a. Extremely rare. Lovely Boscoreale tone. An exceptional realistic portrait in the finest style of the period. Undoubtedly a masterpiece of Roman portraiture. Good extremely fine. Tradart 1995 (5) lot 156; Jean Vinchon 1981 (14 November) lot 60; former Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, Sotheby's 1972 (10 November) lot 44; former Joseph Durkee (1862-1898) collection; Boscoreale hoard (1895)
Galba's portraits showed him as an older, serious, and unpretentious man who was in every respect the anti-Nero: a career military officer concerned not for his own pleasure, but for the welfare of the Roman people, the security and solvency of the Empire. Galba used, just like the Romans from the late Republic, veristic images to underscore traditional values as a way to indicate a connection to the Republic. With this remembrance, many Romans were put at ease knowing him was truly not like the previous emperor Nero, who represented everything the Republic abhorred.
Galba's portraits showed him as an older, serious, and unpretentious man who was in every respect the anti-Nero: a career military officer concerned not for his own pleasure, but for the welfare of the Roman people, the security and solvency of the Empire. Galba used, just like the Romans from the late Republic, veristic images to underscore traditional values as a way to indicate a connection to the Republic. With this remembrance, many Romans were put at ease knowing him was truly not like the previous emperor Nero, who represented everything the Republic abhorred.