Roman Emperor Nero - Springfield, MA
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neoc1
N 42° 06.237 W 072° 35.165
18T E 699595 N 4664137
A polychrome marble bust of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus is located at the head of the stairs on the second level of the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts Museum on the Quadrangle at 21 Edwards Street in Springfield, MA.
Waymark Code: WM1647M
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 05/01/2022
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The polychrome marble and gilded bronze bust of Roman Emperor Nero is one of the most outstanding works of art in the museum's collection. It depicts Nero from the mid-chest up. Nero is wearing a black robe with gold trim and a gold medallion on his right shoulder. Underneath he is wearing is a maroon breastplate with the gold figure of a person with wild hair and open mouth. Under the breastplate is a white ruffled tunic. Nero has a full head curly hair gold hair and blue-gray eyes that are looking up and to his left. His mouth is closed with the lower lip morr prominent that the upper lip.
The bust is set on a brownish-red marble plinth which is attached to a a hexagonal red marble column. A sign next to the bust is inscribed:
Tomaso della Porta, the Elder
Italian, 1520-1567
Portrait Bust of the Roman Emperor Nero, c. 1550
Marble and gilded bronze
This life-sized bust and the nearby bust of Emperor Caracalla were part
of a series commissioned by Pope Julius III that depicts all twelve
Roman Emperors. Emperor Nero, shown here, ruled from 54-68 C. E.
and was the last Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero,
falsely accused of setting a disastrous fire that swept through Rome
destroying buildings and monuments, initiated a building code to
prevent such catastrophes from reoccurring. Despite this effort,
conspiracy theories of the time suggested that Nero deliberately caused
the fire so that he could rebuild his palace. By the end of his rule, the
public strongly disapproved of their emperor.
Tomaso della Porta also collaborated with sculptor Leonardo Sormani
(active 1550-1590) on a model for the bronze figure of Saint Peter, on
top of Trajan's Column at the Vatican in Rome.
The Gilbert Holland and Amy Collier Montague Collection
68.S06
Nero (December 15, 37 – 9 June 9, 68) was the 5th Emperor of Rome and reigned from 54 to 68. He died by committing suicide at age 30. In popular culture Nero is portrayed as being cruel and corrupt. He was said to have started the Great Fire of Rome as an act of urban renewal. Modern scholarship dismisses many of these legends as conspiracy theories.