art

Roman Portraits

Countless hordes of tourists pass throught chilly galleries, without even glancing at the marbles exhibited on either side, unless they are marked with an asterisk in the guide-book. But no-one has time to stop and look at the faces of human being who lived many centuries ago. Yet these faces bear similarities to those that could still be seen around Rome up until a few years ago.
The Roman portrait is linked to Hellenistic naturalism, we can trace his roots back to Etruscan tradition or perhaps to the uncompromising realism of the wax masks that were made from the faces of the dead, whose features were thus preserved in the atrium of the home.
Nowadays technology succours the spirit. Marco Delogu’s phtographic eye seems gifted with psychological intuition. He has patiently observed being who have been dead for millennia: their slight deformities, their melancholy, their awareness of approaching death. These ‘imaginary portraits’ are traced with extraordinary technical refinement, but above all with human compassion.
Lidia Storoni Mazzolani

 

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Salonina, 1989