First Draft.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known as Caracalla, 211-217 AD.
I have posted these images and notes for two reasons -
Firstly - I have had an abiding interest in the products from Mrs Coades manufactury in Lambeth for many years - I bought my first piece of Coade in 1979 a Laughing Philosopher keystone from dealer extraordinaire Paul Farnham.
The Caracalla is mentioned in the Langford's sale catalogue of May 1762 of the contents of the Roubiliac workshops at St Martin's Lane
The second reason for posting is the use of this particular form of socle or varients of it by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Apart from a plaster bust of Cromwell at the Royal Academy the use of this type of socle or variants in the 18th century is unique to Roubiliac.
The predominating historical sources for the rule of Caracalla are Cassius Dio and Herodian, both of whom portray the emperor in an overwhelmingly negative light. They focus on the martial elements of his character and question his fitness to rule over the empire, implying that his mother Julia Domna shouldered the administrative and domestic burden of his reign.
Much of the historical reporting on Caracalla from these sources takes
the form of reported gossip. Indeed, Herodias reports that rumours that Caracalla
and his mother were sexually involved were so current in
Alexandria that she became widely known by the name of Oedipus’ mother Jocasta.
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The busts of Caracalla were much reproduced in ancient Rome and were of two basic types.
For Caracalla's sole reign two types of portrait have been distinguished The first type breaks with tradition. It is characterized by a deep, downward frown on the forehead. The head has a strong leftward rotation.
The second type represents Caracalla in the way we are used to seeing Roman Emperors: calm and composed.
The first type has been assigned to the first years of Caracalla's sole reign, the second to 215-217 AD. Of the latter type, ten examples have survived, all found in Italy.
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The intention here is to investigate whether there might be a dirct link from the bust in the Roubiliac workshop included in Langford's sale catalogue of May 1762, the life size plaster bust of Caracalla included in the 1777 catologue of Harris of the Strand and the Coade Stone bust of Caracalla illustrated here.
I have written about the subject of these socles and its variants several times -
They appear to have been derived from a pair of busts in the Fitzwilliam Museum of the Marble importers, the brothers Christopher (c. 1737 - 1810) and Edward Chapman Bird (1715 - 92) by Giovanni Antonio Cybei (1706 - 1784).
see my essay on the marble workshops and wharfs at Westminster see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-suppliers-of-stone-and-marble-at.html
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For much more on the Roubiliac late type socles see
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/05/marble-bust-of-laocoon.html
This bust of Laocoon was what initiated the study into the use by Roubiliac. of varios forms of this socle
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https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/12/monument-to-francis-hooper-from.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-roubiliac-type-socle-some-mor.html
A marble portrait of Roman Emperor Caracalla by Michelangelo
Buonarroti is shown in an exhibition in Rome in June 2014 from the
Vatican Museums.
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (Italian,
In the early 18th Century Caracalla's likeness was known from a bust in the Farnese collection in Rome and then Naples, believed to date from the 200s.
The Sculptor Bartolomeo Cavaceppi drew on this famous prototype for his marble bust
of Caracalla. Carved during a period in which collectors bought sculptures
all'antica, this bust was probably intended for an English collector's
Neoclassical gallery.
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RSX
Another version of this bust by Cavaceppi is at the Norton Museum West Palm Beach, Florida. USA.
below
Prior to it appearing at the Sotheby’s sale, thisbust of
Caracalla has been hidden from scrutiny
at Brocklesby Park for at least a century. Consequently, it has not been
studied in person by a scholar since Michaelis visited Brocklesby in the 1870s
and published his findings in Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (1882).
Michaelis never doubted the bust’s antiquity, but scholars since then - who
have made their judgments only from images rather than in-person inspection -
had designated it as a modern replica of the 18th century.
Recent scholarship has shown that the bust was once in the collection of Charles Townley, where it was described as ancient and originating from Naples.
Townley, whose collection formed the nucleus of
the British Museum, bought it from Thomas Jenkins. Both men were eminent
connoisseurs of ancient sculpture in their own right, close to the source in
Jenkins' case, and probably better attuned to the authenticity of ancient
marbles than we are today.
Two busts, one of plaster and the other in marble of Laocoon were included in the Roubiliac posthumous sale.
The Roubiliac Sale Catalogue - 12 May 1762 and the following
3 Days contains Lot 48, 3rd Day - Plaster Bust Laocoon. Lot 72, 4th Day –
Marble Laocoon.
This bust of Laocoon with the distinctive socle was the bust that first led me investigate the later type of Roubiliac socle and to the discovery of at least 16 busts by or attributable to Roubiliac using this type of socle
Roubiliac, uses the same socle on at least 16 different busts known
to be from his workshop, including those socles on the four unsigned busts of Laocoon (Tomasso),
Milo of Croton (Blenheim) called a despairing soul Lot 18 day first day of the Roubiliac sale), the Anima Dannata (the Damned Soul) after Bernini and a man
depicted as the Good Roman Emperor Trajan at Goodwood House.
4 of the busts drawn by Joseph Nollekens at the Roubiliac posthumous sale use this type of socle. These drawings are now in the Harris Museum at Preston, Lancs,
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1777-0620-1
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