NON “GUARDARSI IN FACCIA”: VOLTI “NON FINITI” SUI SARCOFAGI DI ETÀ IMPERIALE*

Abstract

The question of unfinished portrait heads on Roman sarcophagi is an inexhaustible one. Several solutions
have been proposed – their completion in stucco or paint, serial production or even superstition – but none
of these is without its problems. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of this phenomenon,
emphasising their numerical significance and the obvious and immediate effect of its normalization, without
the need to resort to explanations that are hardly applicable to the ancient Roman world and to the practice
otherwise attested in the ancient portraiture.