The two emperors Commodus and Caracalla portray themselves as strong, powerful, and vain in the pieces Commodus as Hercules and the portraits of Caracalla.
According to the text book Commodus was all about the luxury in life. He had the perception that he is the reincarnation of Hercules, which this fact alone shows his vanity. With his obsession of luxury items he sponsored many artists, and had them create a sculpture of him as Hercules.
Commodus was killed by his associates in his own bath tub, and I am guessing it is because they were fed up with him being so into himself and thinking so highly of himself.
Comparing both the Commodus as Hercules and the Caracalla portrait we can see that they both have facial hair displaying maturity and wisdom with age. They both show an expression of knowing they have control over the people and power to keep the empire safe from invasions. Both of the pieces eyes are very detailed as if that is the focal point of the sculpture, showing their emotion. The emperor Caracalla eyes show anger and capability of hurting enemies to ensure his peoples security. Commodus as Hercules eyes look focused and determined as if he is thinking what his next move is going to be.
The message they are trying to get across is that men as rulers play a large role during this era because they play the leadership role of the empire. I believe this point of power gets across to the viewer because it is clearly sculpted into the pieces with strong depictions of emotion.
Personally I think that the pieces do convey the message of strength and power because when I first viewed them I immediately thought they were sculptures of rulers and important people. I think the sculptor did a good job in capturing their vanity and belief of being all powerful.
I do agree with you that both of these emperors portray themselves as very strong. I also think Commodus was very hard-headed and was very selfish. The eyes were the most give-away, one coming off as angry and the other was more focused as you said. I think you expressed your opinion well for both sculptures.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement about these two busts. You did your research about these two leaders, and I think this helped your ending conclusion. You were also able to give a good description in describing their features and the differences and similarities.
ReplyDeleteI like how you describe how the sculptures show the point of power because it is "clearly sculpted into the pieces" through emotion. I find emotion as an interesting way to view the pieces, they both have strong facial expressions that make it easy to perceive and imagine their personalities and intentions. Overall your post is very well written and you have good supporting details.
ReplyDeleteVery much agree with the two being powerful and how they acted among themselves in life being their personalities and what they did. I did not however notice detail as you did looking at their hair as maturity and age. I came to the same conclusion in how their eyes remarked who they were quite a bit, in other words it was the heart of the piece.
ReplyDeleteI agree that both sculptures show strength and power. The facial hair does show wisdom. They believe the older you are the wiser you must be. I also went back and looked at the eyes more closely and thought about how they do show power even in such a small area of the sculptures.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I understand the sculptures better after reading your post! Do you think the portrayed message of the sculptures would have turned out differently if they weren't commissioned by the ones being sculpted? Maybe Commodus' vanity is also shown in the fact that he depicted himself as so powerful.
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