Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · statue

Head of a Roman Nobleman, Possibly Marc Antony

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Object Label: This head, which was made for insertion into a bust carved in another stone, represents a high-ranking Roman official. Some scholars have suggested that the subject is Cleopatra’s lover Marc Antony, but that identification is uncertain. However, the fine-grained green Egyptian stone, which was popular with the Romans, and the naturalistic style, which reflects classical Greek statuary, indicate that the man represented here was at least a contemporary of the Egyptian queen and her Roman lover. Provenance: Culture Ptolemaic Caption: Ptolemaic. Head of a Roman Nobleman, Possibly Marc Antony, ca. 30 B.C.E.– 50 C.E.. Graywacke, 9 x 4 1/4 x 5 in. (22.9 x 10.8 x 12.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 54.51. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A stone bust depicting a man with short hair.

The artifact is a carved stone bust of a male figure, showcasing realistic facial features and short-cropped hair. It is crafted from black stone, possibly basalt or a similar material. The style is naturalistic, reflecting detailed attention to human anatomy. The base is minimal, focusing on the portrayal of the head and neck.

royal Roman excellent
Materials stone

Connections

Found at Alexandria
Materials Stone

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 54.51 tier-2
  • BKM-Object 68003 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.