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Head of Caracalla
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
As part of their training in the late 18th century, French artists practiced drawing têtes d'expression, or expressive heads, that display subtleties of human emotion. Greuze made this chalk study in preparation for a painting in which the Roman emperor Septimius Severus rebukes his notoriously ruthless son, Caracalla, for attempting to assassinate him. Although Greuze based this face for the figure of Caracalla on a Roman portrait bust, he imaginatively adapted the facial expression to dramatize Caracalla’s resentment and humiliation during the confrontation.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineHead of Caracalla, c. 1768. Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725–1805). Red chalk on cream laid paper; sheet: 38.8 x 30.3 cm (15 1/4 x 11 15/16 in.); secondary support: 45.6 x 37.1 cm (17 15/16 x 14 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1999.48
