Bust of Emperor Vitellius, Rome circa 1820

Bust of Emperor Vitellius, Rome circa 1820
Important bust of the Emperor Vitellius in white Carrara marble
for the head, yellow and rose
marble from Sienna for the chlamys* and African marble for the
epaulets.
The eighth emperor of Rome is depicted according to the
iconography of a Roman bust
discovered on the Quirinal Mount in Rome in 1505 during
excavations conducted under the
direction of the Venetian cardinal Domenico Grimani (1461-
1523).
The work was then bequeathed by the cardinal to the Republic
of Venice and then exhibited at
the Palazzo Ducale before moving to the Archaeological
Museum of Venice, where it is now
preserved.
As soon as it was discovered, the identity of Vitellius was
attributed to this bust because of
writings that describe him as a colossus of remarkable fatness.
His gluttony was legendary, Suetonius described it in his book
"Lives of the Twelve Caesars".*
The author also wrote that the emperor's two vices were
gluttony and cruelty.
If his first vice is well represented on our bust by the double chin
and the fat cheeks, cruelty is not
to be outdone, with the black and oblique gaze of one who
could order murders and tortures
under the slightest pretext.
White marble pedestal.
Very good state of preservation.
Roman work circa 1820
Size:
Height: 85 cm; Width: 71 cm
Our opinion:

The bust we are presenting is the work of a very good sculptor
who worked in Rome in the first
part of the nineteenth century. With its iconography of a cruel
colossus, it wonderfully symbolizes
the imagination of the Roman elite whose time was divided
between and conspiracy. The
expressive power, the polychromy and the presence of antique
marble make it a very fine
example.
*Vitellius: Raised near Tiberius, this Roman emperor is
associated with the debauchery of
Caprea. His skill in driving a chariot, his passion for gambling,
his spirit of flattery, won him the
favor of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.
He administered the province of Africa well during the reign of
Claudius. Galba entrusted him with
the armies of Germany, and by his flattery to the soldiers, won
the favor of the army.
After Galba's death, he received the purple and disputed the
empire with Otho, who had been
proclaimed at Rome.
His lieutenants won the Battle of Bédriac in April 69, which
surrendered the empire to him. He
punished the murderers of Galba and dealt harshly with the
Praetorians.
When he marched on Rome, parading on the battlefield covered
with corpses, Vitellius had these
atrocious words: "The corpse of an enemy always smells good."
Power was only a means to
satisfy his gluttony.
As for the rest, Nero was his model, and enjoyed the same
popularity among the populace. His
cruelty was no less felt.
Vespasian, therefore, had no difficulty in being acclaimed when
the army of Judea gave him the

purple. He left it to his son Titus to complete the reconquest and
quickly headed for Italy to crush
Vitellius' army at Cremona. Vitellius returned to Rome and tried
to hide his defeat, he even
managed to thwart the coup d'état of Domitian, son of
Vespasian. But when the news of his
defeat and the approaching arrival of Vespasian became
known, the people revolted, and
Vitellius perished cowardly in the midst of the outrages.
The Chlamys is a coat made of a rectangular piece of wool
attached to the shoulder by a fibula.
It was worn during antiquity by Greek and Roman soldiers.
*SUETONIUS, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Vitellius, XIII: "His
favorite vices were cruelty and
gluttony. He regularly made three and sometimes four meals,
breakfast, lunch, dinner, and. It was
enough for everything by habit to make oneself vomit. It was
announced on the same day in the
houses of various people, and each meal cost no less than four
hundred thousand sesterces.
The most famous was the one given to him by his brother on his
arrival. It is said that two
thousand fish of the finest kind, and seven thousand birds, were
served. He surpassed this
magnificence by inaugurating a dish of enormous size, which he
called "the aegis of Minerva,
protector of the city." They had mixed with it the livers of scares,
the brains of pheasants and
peacocks, the tongues of flamingos, and the milt of lampreys.
To compose this dish, ships had
been made to run from the country of the Parthians to the
Straits of Gades. Vitellius' gluttony was
not only voracious, but also sordid and disorderly. Never, in a
sacrifice or in a journey, could he
refrain from taking from the altar and swallowing meats and
cakes that had just been removed

from the fire. By the roadside, in the taverns, he took the dishes
that were still steaming, or
devoured those of the day before, which were half gnawed
away”.