Headless Emperor

Headless EmperorA print of a headless Roman imperial torso the kind of imperial portrait that stood in forums, basilicas and provincial capitals across the Roman Empire. Roman imperial statuary worked, in a real way, as interchangeable parts. The body was a standard type the cuirassed imperator, the togate citizen, the semi divine nude and the head was a portrait attached on top, sometimes literally worked as a separate piece and joined at the neck. When emperors

he was also

eldest son of Priam

A print of a Venus and Mars fresco in the tradition of the Roman wall paintings recovered from Pompeii

Meleager was a prince of Calydon in Aetolia

waiting for the winged horse Pegasus to descend to drink

the head could be knocked off and a new one fitted

A print of a headless Meleager — the fragmentary surviving torso of a classical statue of the Greek hero of the Calydonian boar hunt

from Tivoli onward

the David is the defining sculpture of the High Renaissance

the symmetries and slight asymmetries of the Canon read most clearly: the play of taut and relaxed muscle groups

with its ornate helmet

in Greek and later European literature