Portraits of Leptis Magna: models, production, and contrasts between the Flavian and the Antonine dynasties

• Published in: Libyan studies Vol. 45; pp. 19 - 48
• Main Author: Buccino, Laura
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Italian
• Published: 01.01.2014
• Subjects: Asia; Chronology; Funerals; Provinces; Sculpture and carving; Social stability
• ISSN: 0263-7189
• DOI: 10.1017/lis.2014.3

Different types of marble portraits are discussed: both official Imperial images as well as private portraits, with the intention of illustrating the relationship to Roman models and to highlight stylistic and technical characteristics belonging to local sculptors. The portraits belonged to honourific statues dedicated in Lepcis Magna in public prestigious areas (Old Forum, Theatre, Serapeum, Hadrianic Baths). In these public meeting places the Imperial government officials, civic authorities and the private evergetes had the opportunity of celebrating the central power and its representatives, from the Emperor and the members of his family to provincial functionaries; personal aspirations of Romanisation and of making a political and administrative career; one's own generosity, personal wealth, preeminent role in civic society, as well as accumulating honours, visibility and social prestige. In the case of some statues of private individuals it is uncertain whether they were intended to be honourific or funerary. The chronological span, extending from the Flavian to the end of the Antonine period, corresponds to the period of greatest social stability and economic prosperity in Tripolitania and in Lepcis Magna in particular. From the analysis carried out, certain distinctive traits of Lepcitan portraiture between the first and second century AD emerge. The influence of the Graeco-Alexandrine tradition, more or less filtered through Cyrene, which held a significant role throughout the early Imperial age, tends to weaken and, at the latest by the end of the Flavian period, to disappear altogether. Local workshops, by now well trained, and in some cases identifiable through a distinctive formal language, become strongly influenced by Rome, either directly or through Carthage, capital of the province of Africa Proconsularis. Alongside this component is the growing influence of Asia Minor, fed by the increasing importation of marble from the eastern part of the empire, which would also have a great deal of influence on architectural decoration. The presence of a masterpiece in the Asiatic style, the female portrait-statue from the Serapeum, is the most striking testimonial of this evolutionary trend.