Male Portrait Head

Roman art developed from highly specific representations of individuals—such as the head of a man, displayed nearby, that was carved during the first century b.c.e.—to more schematic representations of humans, as in this male portrait head made over three hundred years later, during the reign of Constantine. This stylistic change, also found in mosaics, reflects changing philosophical ideas in Late Antiquity that stressed the value of the unseen, ideal world over the material details of the physical world.