The term Pseudo-athlete is used to describe works of art from the Late Republican period in Ancient Rome that combine a veristic head with an idealized body that references Classical Greek sculpture. Verism is a style of Roman portraiture that portrays an individual with aging facial features, most notably sagging skin around the mouth and eyes, short-cropped or balding hair, and deep wrinkles on the forehead and around the eyes and mouth.[1] These features were emphasized under the tradition of verism in order to stress an advanced moral and psychological consciousness that comes along with advanced age.[2][3] The veristic features of the pseudo-athlete's head are juxtaposed with the figure's body, which is depicted in the guise of an athletic youth from Classical Greece. The pseudo-athlete's body is typically depicted in heroic-nudity with highly smooth muscular forms and are often shown in an active stance or standing in an S-shaped curved known as contrapposto.[4]
- ^ Kleiner, Diana E. E. (1992). Roman Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 34–36. ISBN 0-300-04631-6.
- ^ Stevenson, Tom (2010). "On Interpreting the Eclectic Nature of Roman Sculpture". Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity. 19: 58–63.
- ^ Gisela M. A. Richter. (1955). The Origin of Verism in Roman Portraits. The Journal of Roman Studies, 45, 39–46.
- ^ Kleiner, Diana E. E. (1992). Roman sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 34–36. ISBN 0-300-04631-6. OCLC 25050500.