Product Description
EMPEROR AUGUSTUS necklace pendant
This pendant is an extremely accurate 3D scanned, 3D printed, and hand-cast reduction of a bust of Augustus, founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor.
Discovered in Fayum, Egypt, the original marble is in the style of the iconic full-figure Prima Porta portait of Augustus, which Camille Paglia describes in Sexual Personae as an example of aesthetics-as-statecraft: "Rome took the eroticism and dreamy obliqueness out of Greek iconic sculpture. The great Prima Porta statue of Augustus, for example, is kouros turned suave, sober diplomat. Law and custom became sacred ends in themselves. The Roman persona was a public construction: it had severity, weight, density."
In 2013 I spent a week working at the Skulpturhalle Basel plaster cast museum in Basel, Switzerland, where I 3D scanned a high fidelity 19th-century plaster cast of the original Augustus marble. I’ve now prepared the resulting 3D data—the first of its kind—for 3D printing wax patterns which are then hand cast in a variety of precious and semi-precious metals in the traditional lost-wax casting method.
I've translated the marble into a low-relief and set it in a bale so that you can wear Augustus around your neck, in a variety of materials.
MATERIALS: Available in gold, silver, bronze, and platinum.
FINISHES: All my designs have very fine details. The "raw" and "natural" finish shows all the most intricate features, and has a very fine-grained texture that creates a subtle satin finish. It's bright and pretty, and on silver it creates an unusual luminous effect. The "polished" and plated options are smooth and are nearly a mirror finish; the very finest details are slightly softened in the polishing process.
MATERIAL CARE & HANDLING: Materials other than gold and platinum may tarnish, but can be polished bright again with a soft cloth.