By Luciano Migliaccio
According to Masp records, the Bust of Augustus, together with an antique sarcophagus and two paintings, was bought in Genoa in October 1913 by Gabriel Ribeiro dos Santos. It was bequeathed to his daughter, Nélia, who donated it to the museum. The white marble head has the features of Roman emperor Augustus. The lorica that covers the torso, in colored marble, as well as the straps that protect the shoulders, replicate part of the figures represented in the famous Roman statue known as Augusto di Prima Porta, which is currently in the Musei Capitolini. The insufficient individuation and the idealization of the head are taken from portraits of Augustus, related to the court-inspired models of the sculpture in Attica in the 5th century bC. The reliefs of the armor, rather poorly executed, reproduce Antiquity figures, without conforming to their formal qualities and proportional norms. On the whole, the sculpture looks like a late and mediocre reproduction of the Roman works undertaken by restorers of the Seicento and Settecento for the ancient’s collections of that period. The head recalls neo-Classical portrait art through its handling of the anatomic details and of the hair. The work may be attributed to a Genovese workshop at the end of the last century.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

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