These works attempted to convey the subject’s “civic distinction” via the use of verism. Veristic portraits utilized and even sometimes emphasized physical characteristics like receding hairlines, wrinkles, warts, and missing teeth. Pained, scowling expressions were common. These aesthetic flaws were intended to convey a message about highly valued traits and conducts within Roman society that the subject of the portrait was said to possess – popular topics included wisdom, experience, and longtime loyalty to one’s state. A surly demeanor expressed emotional pain over a society ravaged by war. One sculpture features its subject holding busts of his ancestors, a shining example of ancestral devotion. This new obsession with verisimilitude was a far cry from the highly idealized, visually pleasing sculptures from Greek
These works attempted to convey the subject’s “civic distinction” via the use of verism. Veristic portraits utilized and even sometimes emphasized physical characteristics like receding hairlines, wrinkles, warts, and missing teeth. Pained, scowling expressions were common. These aesthetic flaws were intended to convey a message about highly valued traits and conducts within Roman society that the subject of the portrait was said to possess – popular topics included wisdom, experience, and longtime loyalty to one’s state. A surly demeanor expressed emotional pain over a society ravaged by war. One sculpture features its subject holding busts of his ancestors, a shining example of ancestral devotion. This new obsession with verisimilitude was a far cry from the highly idealized, visually pleasing sculptures from Greek