
Ancient Roman sculpture borrowed heavily from the Greeks but developed its own distinct character. Where Greek sculptors idealized, Roman sculptors documented. Their greatest contribution was veristic portraiture: unflinching, warts-and-all depictions of real people, complete with wrinkles, sagging skin, and receding hairlines. This honesty was a point of pride in Republican Rome, signaling wisdom and service.
Roman sculptors worked across a huge range. They produced colossal public monuments like Trajan's Column (with 2,662 carved figures spiraling up 35 meters), intimate portrait busts, mythological scenes on sarcophagi, and relief panels celebrating military victories. They perfected the technique of copying Greek originals in marble, and most of what we know about lost Greek bronzes comes from these Roman copies. Roman techniques and ideals resurfaced directly in the Renaissance and Neoclassicism.
Under the Empire, portraiture shifted toward idealization again, with Augustus borrowing Greek Classical style to project authority. Later emperors swung between realism and propaganda as it suited them. Major Roman sculpture collections exist at the Vatican Museums, the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
48 sculptures catalogued with museum locations. Browse all sculptures

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 175
Capitoline Museums, Rome

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 150
Naples National Archaeological Museum, Naples

Ancient Roman (Unknown), -500
Capitoline Museums, Rome

Ancient Roman (Unknown), -20
Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 150
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), -100

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 50
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 101
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 101
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 200
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 50
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 130
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 101
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), -50
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 50
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 101
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 140
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 101
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 130
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), -100
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 140
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 130
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 130
Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 50
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 200
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 150
Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 250
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 260
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 150
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 150
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ancient Roman (Unknown), -150
Capitoline Museums, Rome

Ancient Roman (Unknown), 1
Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Ancient Roman (Unknown), -100
Louvre, Paris, Paris
Ancient Roman (Unknown), 150
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Ancient Roman (Unknown), 251
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Ancient Roman (Unknown), 325
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Ancient Roman (Unknown), 150
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Ancient Roman (Unknown), 212
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
6 museums display (Unknown)'s works. Click any museum to see visiting info and the specific works they hold.



Chicago, United States
27 works on display



New York, USA
11 works on display

Paris, France
1 work on display



Vatican City, Vatican City
4 works on display



Rome, Italy
3 works on display

Naples, Italy
1 work on display
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