Grand Tour marble plaque of Nero in profile wearing a crown, carved in white marble and set within a black marble oval plaque.

The corpulent figure depicted in this plaque is almost certainly Nero. Infamous for his debaucheries and political murders, he ruled Rome from 54- 68 AD. It was Nero who "fiddled while Rome burned" in 64 AD. Most commonly portrayed wearing a laurel crown, here he dons a "corona radiata", a type reserved for the gods, but occasionally assumed by emperors as an expression of their divinity.

Note the black marble appears to have been salvaged from an earlier fragment. The two bolts and bronze hook reinforced with modern epoxy.

Italy c. Mid 19th c.
19" x 16"

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