“Following the study and conservation project of the Apollo Saettante two years ago, we are delighted to once again be collaborating with our colleagues in Naples,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “This year-long conservation project of the bronze sculpture of Tiberius has brought to light the processes by which over-life-sized statues, like this one, were produced. This research is pertinent to the study of all ancient bronzes, as is the study of the methods and materials of the sculpture’s eighteenth-century restoration.”
Conservation of the Statue
Standing over eight feet tall, the statue had been off view for decades on account of structural weaknesses in its lower sections and base. Putting this grand imperial portrait back in the public eye was, therefore, the primary goal of the collaboration. In order to do so, Getty conservators developed a new internal support that evenly distributes the substantial weight of the figure—some 1,050 pounds of bronze—and ensures its secure and safe display. The statue has also now been fully cleaned, revealing the lustrous dark patina it would have had when first showcased in the Royal Museum at Portici.
 |
| Statue of Tiberius, Roman, AD 37, bronze, 96 7/8 in. high. Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Laboratorio di Conservazione e Restauro |
The opportunity to study the portrait in detail has also shed light on how it was manufactured in antiquity. As was typical for large-scale bronze statuary, the Tiberius was fashioned using the lost-wax casting technique. Casting and assembly, however, were unusually complex, involving some sixty individual pieces to create the numerous folds of the emperor’s toga and tunic.
The Life and Legacy of Tiberius
Next year marks the two thousandth anniversary of Tiberius’s accession as Emperor and a timely opportunity to display the newly conserved portrait and re-examine his career and character. Overshadowed by his predecessor, Augustus, Tiberius has long been thought of as an isolated and rather unpleasant character.
Achieving power through twists of fate and familial circumstance, he was often uncomfortable in the role of ruler, and ultimately fled from Rome to the island of Capri and his magnificent Villa Jovis. There, his depravities—at least according to his detractors—reached their peak. Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23 or 24–79) called him “the gloomiest of men,” while Suetonius (about A.D. 70–130) relates that he was so disliked that, when he died, Rome resounded with a cry of “To the Tiber with Tiberius.”
Yet many scandalous reports—still influential to this day—were written well after Tiberius’s death, and much of what they tell is little more than unsubstantiated rumor. This exhibition proposes a more balanced view of this complicated ruler—both his virtues and his failings—and the political and domestic power struggles that framed his life.
Source: The Getty Trust [October 13, 2013]