Rome took the Greek ideal and gave it a job. This portrait dates to the years after Augustus died in 14 CE, and the first emperor is still smooth-cheeked, level-eyed, edited into permanence. Room 1 calls this the afterlife of the ideal body: the singular, perfected self, now in office.
The Daily · Wednesday, 15 July 2026 · still holding on this work
Marble portrait of the emperor Augustus
Roman, ca. 14–37 CE · Marble · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0
