Dietrich Boschung

Some have felt that the Alcudia type was Octavian's first three-dimensional portrait type and was the one used for the gilded equestrian image that the Senate set up in 43 B.C.E. to Octavian in Rostris [16] in the Forum. [17] But, as Boschung rightly notes, the earliest numismatic images of Octavian dating to this time look very generic. Since die engravers often show as much diversity in creating two-dimensional portrait images as do sculptors carving portraits in the round, such generic images would indicate that they were not based on any real portrait image of Octavian. In short, the earliest numismatic images of Octavian that reproduce the facial features and hairstyle of the Alcudia type appear to belong to the DIVOS IVLIVS issue, suggesting that die engravers for this issue were using as their model an image based on the Alcudia type.

In this type, a heightened sense of physiognomic realism is expressed in an artistic form that derives from the old so-called Hellenistic Pathosbild (an emotionally charged image). Reflective of the old pathos formula is the accentuated twist and inclination of the head, the plastically carved hair locks that appear somewhat agitated over the forehead, and the tension in the brows and forehead. This image of Octavian is, however, a far cry from the Roman Pathosbilder of earlier times. [18] In my opinion, the pathos has been toned down [19] in the Alcudia type and tempered by classicizing elements, especially evident in the surface treatment of the flesh and the more composed and lower-relief hair locks at the sides of the head. In this type we also find a stylistic range from a more academic classicism, as evidenced in a head from Ephesos in Selcuk (cat. no. 26, pl. 24.2-4), to a highly modeled and richly plastic treatment, as in a head in the Palazzo Bardini in Florenze (cat. no. 9, pl. 18.1-3). In the dati ng of individual portrait versions of the Alcudia type, Boschung tends to give weight to whether or not a particular work seems to have been influenced by the strongly classicizing style of the Prima Porta type, which most portrait specialists would see as created in or shortly after the founding of the principate in 27 B.C.E. In certain cases (for example, cat. no. 24, pl. 22, and even more in cat. no. 18, pl. 23), we can see the impact of the strongly classicizing Prima Porta type and pincer lock motif over the forehead.

After discussing his Alcudia type, Boschung (pp. 22-26) takes up the matter of the problematic portraiture of Octavian's earliest years. The old designation of Otto Brendel's Type A (represented by a famous head from Ostia in the Musei Vaticani [20] has long been rejected by Roman portrait specialists as an image of Octavian in his early teens and taken instead as a portrait of one of Augustus's adopted sons--a fact lost on modern historians, who continue to use this head in their historical treatments to illustrate what the young Augustus looked like. [21] Far more debated as being a portrait of the young Octavian is Brendel's Type B, which some have regarded as Octavian's earliest known type, predating the so-called Actium type (Boschung's Alcudia type). Boschung (pp. 51-52, 54-55) and others (myself included) [22] consider Brendel's Type B to be a portrait of Augustus's grandson and adopted son Gains. The facial hair, in the form of long side-whiskers and/or beard, evident in some of these portraits (for example, a portrait in the Galleria degli Uffizi [fig. 11]) and in a number of images of Octavian in his early coin types (for example, Fig. 10) has often been interpreted--incorrectly, in my opinion--as a Trauerbart (beard of mourning). [23] The long sideburns and/or narrow, neatly trimmed beard worn by Octavian in his early coin types (a detail that might also have been painted on some of his marble portraits) was most likely a military beard or "beard of vengeance" to evoke an image of a Roman Ares/Mars Ultor-like commander. [24]