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Virtue & Power

Ancient object

Portrait of Aristotle

Marble portrait

Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome

Marble bust of Aristotle, Roman copy after a lost Greek bronze original by Lysippos c. 330 BCE, Palazzo Altemps.
Aristotle · Roman copy after Lysippos · MarblePalazzo Altemps, Rome · Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

Object provenance

Record incomplete
Object
Marble portrait
Made
Evidence level: ProbableRoman imperial period
Copy of
A Greek original, conventionally associated with a portrait by Lysippus reported in the ancient sources.
Found
Not recorded in this catalogue
Excavated
Not recorded in this catalogue
Now at
Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome
Inventory
Not recorded in this catalogue
Identification
Evidence level: ProbableAristotle

Identified from an inscribed herm type. The association of the original with Lysippus is a report rather than a demonstration.

Not recorded here

  • Findspot
  • Excavation date and excavator
  • Inventory number
  • Material and dimensions

Full object record

Read across

How to read the evidence labels

Evidence level: Documented
Supported by a named primary text or by excavated material evidence.
Evidence level: Probable
Supported by strong inference that most specialists accept.
Evidence level: Disputed
Substantial specialist disagreement exists; competing readings are stated.
Evidence level: Literary
Belongs to poetic or mythological construction rather than to history.
Evidence level: Mythological
Belongs to shared religious or mythic tradition rather than to any single text.
Evidence level: Unknown
The available evidence is insufficient to decide.

These labels describe the status of the evidence, not our confidence in a conclusion. A claim marked Literary is not a claim we doubt; it is a claim about what kind of thing a poem is.