New Studies on the Portrait of Caligula in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: (26 Monumenta Graeca et Romana)

The essays in New Studies on the Portrait of Caligula in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts address art historical, historical, cultural and museological issues raised by one of two surviving intact statues of the Roman emperor Caligula (r. 37-41 C.E.). Contributions focus on the creation of a 3D-digital model of the statue and the search for traces of its original polychromy; the history of the statue from its creation to the present, including its rediscovery at a Julio-Claudian sanctuary at Bovillae; aspects of Caligula’s literary and visual portrayal in antiquity and modern historiography (including questions concerning the destruction of his portraits and the implications of Jewish sources for the study of Caligula); and the emperor’s image in popular culture.

Table of Contents:
Preface  Michael R. Taylor List of Plates and Figures Plates 1 Introduction  Peter Schertz 2 Introduction with Remarks on the Methodological Implications of the Digital Restoration of the Richmond Caligula  Bernard Frischer 3 The Togatus Statue of Caligula in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: an Archaeological Description  Mark Abbe 4 Discovery and Modern History of the Richmond Caligula  Maria Grazia Picozzi 5 Caligula: Notes and a Hypothesis about the Ancient Context  Paolo Liverani 6 Reflections on the Typology and Context of the Richmond Caligula  Jan Stubbe Østergaard 7 Beyond Damnatio Memoriae: Memory Sanctions, Caligula’s Portraits and the Richmond Togatus  Eric R. Varner 8 The Image of Caligula: Myth and Reality  John Pollini 9 On the Reputation of Little-Boots  Vasily Rudich 10 Caligula and the Jews: Some Historiographic Reflections Occasioned by Gaius in Polychrome  Steven Fine 11 Caligula Now: Displaying Caligula to a 21st-Century Audience  Peter Schertz Epilogue: VMFA’s New Display of Caligula  Peter Schertz Appendix A: Technical Notes on the Conservation Treatment of the VMFA’s Marble Sculpture of Caligula  Amy F. Byrne Appendix B: Letter to Amy Byrne on the Isotopic Analysis of the Marble of the Head and Torso of the Richmond Caligula (April 29, 2013)  Scott Pike Appendix C: Publication History  Prepared by Mark Abbe General Index

About the Author :
Peter J.M. Schertz, PhD University of Southern California (2006), is the Jack and Mary Ann Frable Curator of Ancient Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He curated the exhibition The Horse in Ancient Greek Art (2017-2018) and serves as co-director of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project of the Center for Israel Studies of Yeshiva University. He has written on the museum profession and the Second Temple of Jerusalem and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Association of Art Museum Curators.
Bernard Frischer, Ph.D. University of Heidelberg (1975) is a digital archaeologist who writes about virtual heritage, Classics, and the survival of the Classical world. He started work in Virtual Heritage in the 1990s, when he was founding director of the UCLA Cultural Virtual Reality Laboratory. In 2016 he started a five-year project to digitize in 3D all the ancient Greek and Roman statues in Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He was co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the online, peer-reviewed journal, Studies in Digital Heritage, published by the Indiana University Virtual World Heritage Laboratory, which he directs.

Contributors are: Peter J.M. Schertz; Bernard Frischer; Mark Abbe; Maria Grazia Picozzi; Paolo Liverani; Jan Stubbe Østergaard; Eric Varner; John Pollini; Vasily Rudich; Steven Fine; Amy Byrne.