Die Büste eines ›Philosophen‹ in Budapest

The subject of this article is the large bust of a ›philosopher‹ in Budapest which is said to come from Asia Minor. It can be shown by detailed observation that the sculpture of the mid-2nd century A.D. was transformed and reworked in late antiquity. The same is true for a second bust, today in Thessaloniki, which probably is from Asia Minor, too, and depicts the same person; but it must be recognized that some of its details differ from those of the Budapest portrait. Both busts once belonged to clipei. On the basis of analyses of the material ‒ both sculptures were made of marble from Göktepe near Aphrodisias ‒ and because of their contemporaneous reworking, it can be hypothesized that they come from the same place and were used on the same architecture. The two sculptures attest the reuse of portraits of the mid-2nd century A.D. in late antiquity, depictions of a man presenting himself as a ›pepaideumenos‹ (intellectual) of the Second Sophistic. Unfortunately, the architectural context cannot be ascertained, and it must remain open whether, after reuse of the busts, a different person was meant or the same man as in the distant past, just a bit ›modernized‹ in the sculptural style of late antiquity.