Togaed Barberini

This funerary statue can be considered the figurative evidence of an ancient tradition, renowned among the ancient authors, which reserved patrician families the privilege of commissioning wax portraits of their ancestors. These portraits were kept in the house and worn during private and public ceremonies. By holding his grandfather's (50-40 BC) and his father's (20-15 BC) portraits, the figure indicates his social status. The work can be dated to the last decade of the first century BC, while the head, which does not pertain to the statue, probably dates back to the mid-first century BC.