Dietrich Boschung

A further issue to be considered is whether some of the portraits that Boschung takes as Augustus with assimilated features are really portraits of Augustus at all. In studies ruled by the Lockenzahlmethode, it is generally assumed that the hairstyle rather than the portrait features establishes who is represented. However, if we allow for the possibility that at least an occasional portrait of one of Augustus's successors might have been produced with a hairstyle that imitated that of Augustus, a few works included in Boschung's catalogue as images of Augustus become questionable. Three portraits, in particular, may very well be images of Tiberius with hairstyles like that of Augustus: a small bronze bust from Herculaneum in the Museo Nazionale di Napoli with some classicizing features (cat, no. 52, pl. 62), a head in L'Aquila (cat. no. 116, p1. 107), and a somewhat restored marble head in the Museo Capitolino in Rome (cat. no. 164, pl. 160.1-2).

Another phenomenon in ancient portraiture involving assimilation is Zeitgesicht, in which, as mentioned above, a private individual's portrait was made to resemble the princeps in physiognomy as well as hairstyle to some degree. Such private portraits were executed in the artistic style of the times. A good example of Zeitgesicht is a portrait in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence that was identified as Augustus [90] but most likely portrays a young private individual (Fig. 13); the portrait features show some resemblance to those of Augustus, with a reverse Type V pincer effect of the hair locks over the forehead. In some cases examples of Zeitgesicht may be difficult to establish. [91] Boschung cites two portraits as "unsure" images of Augustus because their hairstyles seem too freely interpreted. To me, both are images of private individuals, one (cat. no. ?222, pl. 210) with slight assimilation of facial features to those of Augustus (more in profile), the other (cat. no. ?223, p1. 211) to those of Caligula. Two other portraits that Boschung classifies as images of Aug ustus I believe may also be portraits of private persons with assimilated hairstyles and/or some facial characteristics of Augustus: cat. no. 62, pl. 65 (the caption of the plate gives the incorrect cat. no. as 52) and cat, no. 61, pl. 66.

The imitation by private individuals of hairstyles of leaders and members of their family is hardly unique to the Romans. In a late nineteenth-century painting by Jean-Georges Vibert, In the Image of the Emperor (Fig. 14), [92] a cleric stands before a bust of Napoleon holding a mirror as he combs his hair to imitate the hairdo of the emperor, while on the wall behind him hangs a painted portrait of Napoleon in the same three-quarter pose as the cleric. Even the cleric's face and expression have taken on a Napoleonic look. During the Kennedy years, a number of women copied the First Lady's hairstyle and outfits, while men have imitated Elvis Presley's hair and look. In more extreme cases, individuals have even undergone plastic surgery to make themselves look like various celebrities. Although it may have been considered bad taste, there were no Roman laws governing a private individual's appropriation of a princeps'iconographic hairstyle.