Although the Roman inherited artistic traditions from the Etruscans and the Greeks, Republican portraiture veered from the styles of their predecessors. Unlike the heroic and idealized portraits of Hellenistic Greece, Roman Republican portraiture was much more realistic, depicting faces that lacked symmetry - with wrinkles, scars, and blemishes. This verisimilitude in portraiture mirrored the Roman belief that the individuality of a person lay in his or her facial features.

This portrait head of a man is shown in middle age with a receding hairline, wrinkled brow, and sunken cheeks.