Walk through any museum housing classical art, and you’ll notice a peculiar trend—numerous Roman statues are missing their heads. While other forms of art are typically displayed in their entirety, ancient Roman sculptures often appear damaged, with missing limbs, shattered noses, and, most notably, severed heads. But what’s the story behind this common phenomenon?
The Fragility of Ancient Roman Art: Natural Causes of Decapitation
One of the primary reasons Roman statues often lose their heads is the inherent weakness in the design. As Rachel Kousser, a professor of classics and art history at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York, explains, the neck is a natural weak point, making it susceptible to breaking. Over centuries of being displayed, transported, and even handled, these statues endure wear and tear, with the neck being the first to snap under pressure.
Deliberate Destruction: The Power of “Damnatio Memoriae”
However, not all decapitations were accidental. In some cases, the Romans themselves purposefully beheaded statues as part of a process known as “damnatio memoriae,” which translates to the condemnation of memory. This practice allowed the Roman Senate to erase the legacy of an unpopular or disgraced emperor by destroying his images and inscriptions.
A notorious example of this is Emperor Nero, whose portraits were systematically defaced or reworked following his death. Statues of such emperors were often decapitated to symbolically erase them from history.
Removable Heads: A Practical Design Choice
Interestingly, some Roman statues were intentionally crafted with removable heads. According to Kenneth Lapatin, an antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, this design feature served several purposes. It allowed sculptors to use different materials for the body and head, have multiple artists work on the same piece, or even replace the head later. These statues are easily identified by the smooth edges where the neck meets the body, in contrast to the rough, jagged breaks seen in accidental decapitations.
The Art Market’s Dark Side: Modern-Day Decapitations
While most headless statues result from ancient practices or natural deterioration, there have been instances of modern-day decapitations driven by the art market. Roman sculptures are highly valuable, and unscrupulous art dealers have discovered that selling a statue’s head separately from its body can fetch a higher price. One such case involves the Statue of a Draped Woman at the Getty Museum.
By the time the museum acquired the 7-foot-tall statue in 1972, it was headless, despite archival photos from the 1930s showing it intact. It’s believed that someone intentionally decapitated the statue to sell the pieces separately, turning one artifact into two.
The Reunion of Head and Body of Roman: A Rare Occurrence
Fortunately, some of these decapitated statues eventually find their missing heads. In the case of the Statue of a Draped Woman, the museum’s senior curator discovered a dealer selling a head that closely resembled the one missing from their collection. Though the process of reattaching the head was challenging due to the rough handling it had endured, conservators managed to reunite the ancient statue with its original head, completing a rare and successful restoration.
