A Roman Marble Portrait Bust of Caracalla, 212-217 A.D.

Thomas Jenkins (1722-1798), Rome, acquired in Naples in 1768

Charles Townley (1737-1810), London, acquired from the above in 1772/3

Richard Worsley (1751-1805), Appuldurcombe House, Isle of Wight, received as a gift from the above

Charles Anderson-Pelham (1781-1846), 1st Baron Yarborough, Brocklesby, by inheritance from the above

by descent from the above to the present owner

Documented

drawing commissioned for Charles Townley, ca. 1786, in the British Museum (mus. no. 2010,5006.203): https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_2010-5006-203

Townley Archive records in the British Museum, transcribed by E. Dodero, Ancient Marbles in Naples in the Eighteenth Century, 2019, p. 514

a 1970s photograph showing the present bust among other marbles in the Orangery at Brocklesby Park: https://arachne.dainst.org/entity/198090

Published

Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 236, no. 89

Johann J. Bernoulli, Die Bildnisse der römischen Kaiser und ihrer Angehörigen, Römische Ikonographie, vol. II.3, Stuttgart, 1894, p. 54, no. 50

Heinz B. Wiggers, in: id. and Max Wegner, Caracalla bis Balbinus, Das römische Herrscherbild, vol. III.1, Berlin, 1971, p. 59

Eberhard Paul, Gefälschte Antike von der Renaissance bis zur Gegenwart, Vienna, 1982, p. 110, fig. 85

Klaus Fittschen and Paul Zanker, Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen, vol. 1, Mainz, 1985, p. 106, no. 2a

Geoffrey B. Waywell, "The Ancient Sculpture Collection at Brocklesby Park and other British Collections in the Nineteenth Century," Kölner Jahrbuch, vol. 40, 2007, p. 142, note 34

Eloisa Dodero, Ancient Marbles in Naples in the Eighteenth Century, Leiden, 2019, p. 514f., no. 246

Caracalla was born in Gaul Lucius Septimius Bassianus. His nickname of 'Caracalla' is thought to derive from the Gallic hooded cloak which he made popular. 

The head of the present bust is a replica of the emperor’s first portrait type, which is known in numerous ancient (and modern) replicas. However, in contrast to most replicas of this type, the head of the present one is not turned to the left, but to the right. Another replica of Caracalla’s first portrait type with the head turned to the right is in the Musei Capitolini in Rome: Fittschen and Zanker cit., p. 109, no. 93, pl. 114 (arachne.dainst.org/entity/1097287).

According to the dealer Thomas Jenkins, the first known owner of the present bust, "there are very few gentlemen whose acquaintance will prove more interesting to a lover & judge of the fine arts than Sir Richard Worsley" (I. Bignamini and C. Hornsby, Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome, 2010, p. 343). Worsley was a wealthy and educated politician who formed the largest collection of Greek antiquities in Britain before the arrival of the Elgin marbles. The core of his collection was the fruit of a five-year tour through the Eastern Mediterranean (1783/88), augmented by acquisitions from the Roman art market. The present bust of Caracalla was a gift from Charles Townley, arguably the most renowned British collector of antiquities, who became Worsley’s friend and correspondent. Worsley's collection was kept at Appuldurcombe, his family home on the Isle of Wight, then passed by inheritance to the Yarborough family and was relocated to Brocklesby Park in the mid 19th century, where it has remained until now (for an overview see J. Scott, The Pleasures of Antiquity. British Collectors of Greece and Rome, 2003, pp. 155ff.). A Greek stele from Brocklesby was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York in 1927: acc. no. 27.45).