When
an aristocratic patriarch died, his survivors would have a wax image made
of his face and keep it in the family shrine. They would bring out these
wax masks for funerals and other important processions. The wax images,
however, only lasted about 30 years. At the beginning of the first century
BC, patrician families, who had become somewhat wealthier and more assertive,
began to have these masks converted into marble busts as a more permanent
record of their ancestors and achievements. This marble bust represents
such a permanent record.
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Copyrighted by Hugh Dubrulle, 2002.
When
an aristocratic patriarch died, his survivors would have a wax image made
of his face and keep it in the family shrine. They would bring out these
wax masks for funerals and other important processions. The wax images,
however, only lasted about 30 years. At the beginning of the first century
BC, patrician families, who had become somewhat wealthier and more assertive,
began to have these masks converted into marble busts as a more permanent
record of their ancestors and achievements. This marble bust represents
such a permanent record.