STATUARIA ROMANA ANTICA: ICONOGRAFIA DI MARTE -- Marble relief fragment with the head of MARTE (Rogers Fund, 1918)

Speranza

Marble relief fragment with the head of Mars
Period: Mid-Imperial
Date: early 3rd century A.D.
Culture: Roman
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: H. 37.8 cm
Classification: Stone Sculpture
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1918
Accession Number: 1918.145.49
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 168

Mars was one of the more important gods of the Roman pantheon.

Numerous temples, shrines, and altars were dedicated to him in Rome and throughout the Empire. As the god of war, he had many of the same attributes as the Greek god Ares, but he was also closely associated with the imperial cult, since the emperor's power and popularity depended heavily on the army and its military successes. Mars was therefore often depicted on monuments celebrating imperial victories, notably on triumphal arches, a distinctively Roman type of public building. This fragment presumably comes from one such monument, perhaps even from the now lost Portico of Septimius Severus in Rome. Mars is represented in the canonical guise of an older, bearded man wearing a Corinthian helmet tipped back on his head.
References
M.E.P. 1924. "Miscellaneous Greek and Roman Sculpture." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 19(8): p. 194.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 115, p. 148.