It would not have served him well to send a true likeness of a balding and bloated monarch to the far reaches of the empire. Only knowing Domitian's character enables one to see a hint of the emperor's cruelty and vanity in the vague smile. One imagines that the artist, whoever he might have been, did attempt to sneak a bit of truth into the imperial image. Idealized or not, however, the bust stands not only as a historical monument to an emperor who had an enormous impact on the Roman empire despite his vices, but also as a testament to the power of art then and now. The fact that it is the sole surviving bust of this emperor attests to the power that these images must have had over Roman society -- the effort to carry out the damnatio memoriae must have been...

The impact that the piece continues to have on modern audiences, both by virtue of its rarity and its beauty, speaks to the universal elegance of its form and the regal, if unsettling, bearing of its subject.
References

Chilver, GEF. "Domitian," the Encyclopedia Britannica. Online edition. 25 November 2010. Web.

Honour, Hugh and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2005. Print.

Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Jones, Brian W. The Emperor Domitian. New York: Routledge, 1993. Print.

Varner, Eric. Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae…