Bronze statue of the emperor Trebonianus Gallus

Ancient Roman This nearly complete monumental Roman bronze stands 241 cm (almost 8 feet) tall and is one of the very few large-scale bronze statues from the 3rd century CE to survive. Most ancient bronzes were melted down for reuse, making this an extraordinarily rare survival. It shows the figure in heroic nudity, a convention borrowed from Classical Greek art.

There's a deliberate contrast between the idealized muscular body and the brutish, realistic portrait head. This tension between ideal and real is characteristic of 3rd-century Roman art. The identification as Emperor Trebonianus Gallus (who ruled from 251-253 CE) is based on coin portraits, though some scholars have debated the attribution.

The statue was reportedly found near the church of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome. It's on view in Gallery 169 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1905.