(Picture © Jacques Kuyten)

Supposed bust of Seneca after the Antique
Bronze with dark brown patina, inlaid eyes
Italy, Naples, Chiurazzi workshop, 19th century
Dimensions: h.: 43 cm

This bronze bust resting on a yellow marble pedestal represents the supposed portrait of philosopher Seneca: an elderly man with a bushy beard and moustache, wrinkles on his forehead, crow’s feet at the corners of the eyes, protruding cheekbones and emaciated cheeks, parted mouth, marked corners of the lips, messy hair with long shaggy locks. The head slightly turned to the right emphasizes the vitality of the gaze that intensely stares at the viewer. The folds of the neck and the hollow of the collarbones reinforce the realistic rendering of this portrait of a suffering man.

It was executed from the bronze original in the Naples Museum (inv. No. 5616), which is itself a Roman copy of a 2nd century BC Greek bronze original from the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. The house belonged to Calpurnius Pison, Julius Caesar’s stepfather, Clodius’s friend and Cicero’s adversary. The building was buried during the 79 AD Vesuvius eruption and found during archaeological excavations commissioned by Charles de Bourbon in 1750.
The resemblance of this portrait with the face of a statue excavated in Rome in 1594, known as “dying Seneca” is what prompted them to be compared. A Roman antiquarian saw an allusion to the philosopher’s death as described by Tacitus.

There are nearly forty marble representations of the bust of this illustrious figure. It has been disseminated throughout Europe, notably through printmaking, since the 16th century, under this description and this acceptance. This portrait can be found in several paintings by Peter Paul Rubens (“The Four Philosophers” painting in Palazzo Pitti in Florence, ” Seneca’s Death” in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich).

This bust from the Villa of the Papyri was engraved in 1767 in volume 5 of the Antichità di Ercolano commissioned by Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. This sum of eight engraving volumes not only contains what was found in the excavations of Herculaneum, but also those of other cities around the Gulf of Naples (Pompeii, Stabies, Portioci and Resina). The discovery in 1813 of a double Hermes combining a portrait of Socrates with an effigy, which according to the inscription of “SENECA”, would be an authentic portrait of the Stoic thinker, was a game changer. It is kept at Berlin’s Antinkensammlung.The Neronian period style makes it possible to assume the original was created at the end of the philosopher’s life.

Historians now agree the bust of the Villa of the Papyri is not the portrait of Socrates. It is still not identified although they put forward the names of Hesiod, Aristophanes or even Aesiope. Seneca’s name also endured.

In the second half of the 19th century, faced with the growing interest of amateurs for Venusian sites, Gennaro Chiurazzi conceived and put into practice the idea of copying ancient works of art, taking inspiration from Cellini. As soon as 1840, he established a foundry which would find a tremendous success, benefiting from the authorization of the Naples Museum to display replicas of his extraordinary collection of ancient sculptures. He created his works in several dimensions and in three finishing patinas. The pseudo Seneca is listed under number 16 in Salvatore Chiurazzi’s complete catalogue.

Bibliography

• Chantal Grell, « Les voyageurs à Herculanum » in Dix-huitième Siècle, n° 22, 1990. Voyager, explorer. pp. 83-94
• Jean-Christophe Courtil, « Valetudinarius Seneca. Senèque le Philosophe était-il un malade imaginaire ? » in Pallas, revue d’études antiques, 2012, n°88, pp. 83-102
• Paul Zanker, « I ritratti di Seneca » in P. Parroni (s/dir.), Seneca e il suo tempo, Actes de conférence (Rome-Cassino, 11-14 nov. 1998), Rome, 2000, pp. 47-58.
• Salvatore Chiurazzi, Chiurazzi Scietea Anonima : Fonderie – Ceramica – Marmeria : Napoli. ed. Catampgo, Naples , 1929, n° 16

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This article was originally written in French by Thierry-Nicolas Tchakaloff. Translation by Laurent Garcia.