Why are the Noses of Ancient Statues Broken?
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- Virtually every ancient statue on display in museums has a broken or replacement nose. This video explores some of the reasons why.
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:38 The uses of statues
1:22 Bronze and marble
2:12 Wondrium
3:18 The destruction of ancient statues
4:01 Idol smashing
5:09 Sometimes, noses were broken...
5:42 ...And sometimes, statues just fell
6:30 Restoring noses
For October spooky season, can you tell us about some Roman folktale of ancient frights? Or perhaps works of literature banned for purporting that sort of fiction?
Awesome idea!
I'm only mad you suggested this because I now need it so desperately!!
Chapter 18 of “Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants” has several spooky stories in it.
Last October he did a video titled “Vampires in Greek Myth”. You might like that one if you haven’t seen it already.
The Romans were terrified of pineapple on pizzas
Sadly, broken noses on statues could mean real problems at the time of identifying the represented figures. For example, there is a noseless bust of a thin man with abundant hair and a fierce look that, for years, was considered to represent the dictator Sulla, since there is another noseless bust that represents the dictator with the same physical characteristics. However, it was recently discovered that the first mentioned bust actually depicted General Scipio Africanus before said general became bald and fat. If, at least, one of these busts didn't have a broken nose, it is possible that this confusion would have never occurred.
Nice to see you everywhere Roman.
According to African-American folklore, it's so we don't find out that all the European Kings were actually African Kangzzzz
Sheeeit...
Makes sense in a number of cases. Not saying all but I know what the European colonizers wrote in history books and His Story book.
We Wuz Caucasians and shyt!
I've been in Rome for the past month, and the only thing more mindblowing than how MUCH ancient statuary there is is the multitudes more there must have once been. So beautiful.
To be honest, we should be thankful that there are still many statues that (despite being damaged) can give us an idea of what great leaders physically looked like. In fact, it seems to me a miracle that statues of infamous leaders such as Caligula, Nero, Domitian or Caracalla still exist despite the "damnatio memoriae" that these tyrants suffered after their death. It's always good to see the bright side of things.
A bit off topic, but I think that anybody who visits the Basilica of St.Denis outside Paris must lament the destruction that occurred there during the French Revolution. Nevertheless, the remains there tell a story that is fantastically bizarre.. and true.
bow down before the one you serve, you're going to get what you deserve. -trent
"To be honest"
This is why watching those fucking tards topple statues just a couple years back made me feel so sad for the future, watching the defacing happen in real time.
People used to preserve even that which they hated because they wanted to remember. It's why nazis are such famous bad guys in media. There's an effort to keep them in the collective memories as evil so we don't follow their mistakes after forgetting how terrible they were.
Mind blown! I'd never heard the reasoning of them needing to breathe. That makes a lot of sense. My professors would mention the nose removal as a removal of power, which I suppose sorta fits.
“Did you feel that” -> “where did my house go” 😂
In a museum in Houston, there was a sarcophagus where every nose was broken but the rest was pristine and grand. I always wondered why that was.
Could've been some kind of disease too. My grandpa lost his nose in his 50s lived well up passed 100s healthy. But he didn't have a nose. Maybe something like that happened? They'd loose their nose and then they'd remove it from the statue to match said guy
@@whiteboymike3999 Ahh, syphilis.
Religious zealots have caused unprecedented death and destruction in the name of their imaginary supernatural deity. I don't know which is more biased and divisive... religion or politics.
@@CharGC123 I know Protestants vandalised and destroyed massive amounts of art and even maps and so on in England. They burnt whole libraries along with destroying statues and works of art. I imagine the Christians did similar to Pagan works prior to that too. And on and on sadly. Political destructions goes along with censorship and is certainly a thing.
@@CharGC123 atheists are no different, communism which murdered the most in modern day of political movements is inherently anti religious, capitalism as a materialistic atheistic system which has also cost many lives directly and indirectly, what is your point?
As a student of art history your channel is pure joy. Thank You!
Dr. G! Years ago I worked in an office tower downtown and there was a prestigious lawyers office on the floors below. I would often find myself waiting for an elevator with a tall man in his late forties who would get out at their main floor. Almost immediately I noticed that his nose and one of his ears had fine, hairline 'seams' where they joined the rest of his face. One day a big, burly female FedEx woman with a brush cut and multiple piercings shoved past him, jostling him hard... and his nose fell OFF completely. I swear, the first thing I thought of was... Roman bust. He picked up his appendage and looked at me and said, "Take it from me kid, getting frostbite on Mt. Everest is not what you want in life."
Every ancient golem has a cover story to hand :)
That's a great story
@@toldinstone why dont you tell the truth in this video?
@@jadler457 What are you getting at?
Good lord, what a story, and well told, too. That man’s fate almost happened to me. One day when I got home from school when I was sixteen it was my job to shovel the snow off the driveway. It was bitterly cold, below zero Fahrenheit, and I wasn’t careful enough, thinking I could finish the job quickly. When I got back inside I sat down and started reading a magazine. After a while my left ear started to hurt, suddenly and badly. I went into the bathroom to have a look and was horrified to see it was swollen up to at least twice its normal size. My father took me to the doctor the next morning. The doc said that I had frozen my ear and that if I had happened to touch it before it thawed out it would have broken off my head! The ear healed, but a part of it has had an area of rock hard cartilage ever since.
Awesome video. Statues of male subjects usually have another part broken. Probably for similar reasons. You have to hand it to the Vatican. Everything there, along with things generally at locations converted to churches, were preserved better than just about everywhere else. I've walked that corridor. I wish I had not been in such a hurry.
Vatican stole as much art as the Nazis.
The Vatican has destroyed more history and knowledge than they have ever saved or preserved. Christianity and religion has been the bane of ALL history and culture preservation.
Well the 'Unit' removal/covering was a deliberate Christian purity campaign (while preserving the value of the rest of the statue), so perhaps not quite like noses. And agreed on the Vatican - the museums are set up SO terribly that I hate them, despite how many amazing artworks they hold. But maybe an after-hours event would let you see the statuary and escape to tell the tale without having to go through the rest of the cattle drive to the exit....
Here in Copenhagen the Glyptotek museum has a small "nasothek" - a collection of restored noses that have since been removed from the original sculptures so the sculptures are displayed without modern interpretation of missing parts.(There are also a few ears and other bits.)
It's a weird and wonderful little display that highlights varying approaches to art restoration over time.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasothek
I've got your nose
Thats really cool, thanks. It's specially funny to me because in my country "naso" means big nose ("look at the naso on that guy!") and library is "biblioteca", so nasoteca sounds great 🤭
I just assumed Tycho Brahe had an extensive fanclub
Humanity's urge to destroy - a curious and depressing characteristic - even today.
But what else would you expect from a world run by the Jesuit pope? Could it be any other way?
I think the very same when I see videos about these kinds of moments in history. I can’t help but feel discomfort in the idea of seeing a whole movement of people tearing down and vandalizing beautifully made statues that had represented cultural and religious significance for hundreds of years. Granted this was a rise of Christianity which held these statues as being of pagan roots and corruption, regardless this was part of a whole paradigm shift in how massive groups of people viewed themselves that age forward. I wonder how the Jews felt seeing this after so many years living under such a colossal pagan empire.
@@Soulseeologia
The pope doesn't run the world lol Seek help.
@@Wyattinous
"I wonder how the Jews felt seeing this after so many years living under a colossal pagan empire."
I'm Jewish and can answer this. We can surely surmise that quite a few Jews likely felt some satisfaction seeing Roman religion crumble as it had definitely oppressed them, *but* some of the first moves by Christians were to continue oppressing Jews. In some ways, Christians enacted laws that were worse for Jews living under Roman rule limiting their rights of mobility even further.
So, what this translates into is Jews still didn't like the empire and in general saw it as somewhat the same old same old. After all, the Christian god had a son and was divisible by three. That sounded very different from the Jewish god, and so Jews often saw the Christians ruling them as more or less pagans also. I think had Christians not immediately begun restricting Jews' already limited rights, a different attitude would've been more prevalent.
@@Wyattinous After 1-2,000 years, and the main causes of damage or destruction to Roman statues, such as moisture, earthquakes, recycling(either for lime or bronze, or even to make a different statue), war. Any Christian rioters who destroyed or vandalized statues in ancient times would be totally insignificant. The incidents seem to be so rare that they get specifically mentioned by ancient writers. It's not like people were allowed to go around destroying property, including when the Romans became Christian.
I have your book, the audio version. It's so interesting. I love your storytelling because you make ancient history come alive. That's the best kind. Bravo! 👏 👏
5:46 this did happen in India and central asia as well. Losing your nose was a sign of losing face. It was a sort of humiliation caused to make people doubt the power of the idol.
I read in an Asterix comic, that the reason for the missing nose of the Sphinx is that Obelix climbed on it.
It’s true!!
This is pure quality content, man. Keep it up!
“Before the Statues Fell”, sounds like the title of an awesome story.
I love the 3 dimensional aspect of ancient statues and busts. It really is akin to meeting famous (or merely important) people from the past.
Thanks for videos like these.
As usual, intersting and well served.
Your book is fantastic to read.
Thank you.
Man I would love for you to do a course for Wondrium. I would totally watch a college-level long course on Roman-era history by you.
Love the topic. And really excellent images in this one
Awesome presentation. As always!!!
This episode was extraordinarily well-written.
Just found your channel and am binge-watching your glorious content. Thank you for producing thought-provoking videos!
I'm very glad you're enjoying my channel!
Just wonderful as always, Thank you so much. Loved the fact of the renaissance artists restored some noses, I always learn more.
great job, per usual, Garrett 👏
whenever I think of these statues, I reflect upon the theurgical practice in antiquity of "animating statues."
Your videos are never quite long enough for me lol. Fantastic work as always
You just answered so many questions thank you so much bro, keep up the good work!!!
Another lovely video. Thank you :)
I really enjoyed this video. And, having found you, i instantly subscribed. Thank you!
Wonderful stuff!
This channel is a real treasure.
Your voice is so soothing big dog, I replay these to help me sleep. Thanks for sharing and bless you.
My only wish is that the sponsored-by message was at the beginning or end. It’s kinda stylecramping to have it abruptly in the middle, in my opinion.
All medieval stone busts in St.Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Czechia have broken and later replaced noses. It is said it was done by enemy soldiers in 1648, during the 30-year war. When the bust of the Emperor Charles IV. of Luxembourg was compared with his preserved skull, it was shown, that the bust is his exact portrait - with the exception of the nose.
Love your work. Thank you.
Deeply appreciated!
I thought the answer was just "the nose sticks out" but the more thorough answer was so much more interesting. Thanks for the video.
As always; another great production!
Well if it isn't John Bell
@@patstokes7040...Hood...after the hyphen...Hood
Great Video!
Beautiful descriptive prose.
Such an interesting topic. Thank you for this video, it's sad to see how much of humanity's great past has been lost, damaged or destroyed because of negligence or, even worse, sheer vandalism. Many statues in marbles arrived to our age, but we can't say the same about the written documents, papyrs and books from the Classic era.
Thanks from Italy, ciao a tutti! 🇮🇹
Great video, a very interesting subject
I always assumed they just fell face down and that's why the nose broke.
Hey man thanks making this video l, I have been asking for ages for somebody to look into this. I actually spent abit of time looking into it myself.
Here’s an interesting one that I found inadvertently which was a video in the British pathe, they interview a woman who identifies as a “chipper” her hobby was to chip noses and other stuff from historical monuments as a collector, that was in the 1940s/50s.
"The pope's favourite McDonald's" slayed me, I always love the little jokes like that which you put in the videos. The scale label on the earthquake intensity map, too, is a great example of why your channel is such a great one!
Thank you for this video. Rome has always fascinated me as has, truth to tell, all of the ancient world.
Another book please!
This channel is so relaxing... It doesn't rely on stoking outrage or fear. Just asking interesting questions about our past I'd never thought to ask
great video as usual . congrats. What is that bust carved in different stones at the left corner below at 0:27? Who was the sitter?
excellent et très pertinent comme d'habitude!
Un homme de France regardant une vidéo sur cette chenal? Quelle surprise. Pour la plupart, l'Americains regarde cette chenal, comme moi-même, alors bienvenue.
thank you!
The Ancient Roman "Scratch n Sniff" concrete tablets were definitely a risk.
I really like your videos. They are well made, and undoubtedly they are a lot of work. I always learn things from them, so it is surprising and disappointing that this one has so many stupid comments, written by people who apparently think they are clever and witty and funny. . . but they aren’t.
Thanks!
Wondrium have the awesome Roman technology series of lectures. Just great
TIL spirits inhabiting statues would rather die than be mouth-breathers.
Lookin for another brilliant book.
I'd love for you to do on on the real height of Maximinus based on contemporary evidence etc. I think that'd be a real interesting one (if the evidence is there).
Added to my list of places to visit.
Also interesting is that I have a cast of one of the statues you show, on my desk in front of me.
great video as always Garrett!
do you know which busts that tourist destroyed the other day?
Damaged, not destroyed. Vatican museum officials said they can be repaired.
This was definitely the first pick of all the nose-based video I've ever watched.
6:08
Barbarian 1#: "Could you please explain me again why we have to vandalize this statue naked?"
Barbarian 2#: "SHUT UP!!! If we are going to destroy Rome, we will do it with the greatest and most artistic lack of dignity possible!"
Barbarian1#: "You only want to see my butt, right?"
Barbarian 2#: "Absolutely..."
I thought the same thing!
Ironically, the Germanic barbarians were much more prudish about nudity. The Romans objected to large penises on statues, as they considered them to be "barbaric."
@@faithlesshound5621 Well, modern-day Germans - although still a bit barbaric at best - are certainly not prudish anymore. You go to any beach in the world these days and you'll see all the big-bellied Germans standing around stark naked to last you a lifetime.
@@faithlesshound5621 actually the Romans reported that those ‘barbaric’ tribes went to war naked in most cases
@@stefke5862 That painting is a Renaissance depiction of Odoacer. Odoacer was a general in the Roman army. He didn't lead naked troops. Likewise if I have that wrong and it's meant to be Alaric. At that point, the barbarians were all Romanized and Christianized.
I am glad that Garrett noses this and has explained to us.
I WAS NOT ready for 1:38
I just got back last night from a three week visit to Italy, including Rome and the Chiaramanti museum. Fantastic. The thing I found most striking was the ego, and often lack thereof, of the subjects whose statues were sculpted. Some clearly wanted to be "improved" in a 2000 year old version of Photoshop, but a remarkable percentage were seemingly happy to have likenesses that were not at all flattering in any way...
Sad about the kook who damaged two sculptures from that very hall a couple weeks ago when his request to speak with the Pope was denied. This is why we can't have nice things.
Oh!! You talked about this a bit in the ospod! That’s how I found you!!
But they could breathe through their mouth right? Also, I went to that Vatican museum and there were lots of mythological statue's as well.
Well the mouth was closed shut, so i suppose not… and yeah luckily we still have many statues (that got restored), otherwise there would be no Vatican museum
Christians believe that the soul is immortal. It makes no sense that they would believe destroying the nose of a statue affected the soul. In fact, it seems to me that believing that a statue can have a soul would be similar to idolatry. If Christians did destroy the noses of statues to make them unable to breath, those Christians had a warped understanding of their religion.
Interesting thank you
I always figured it was a weakness in the underlying material of the sculpture in many cases although I knew that others were deliberately defaced for one reason or the other.
Thanks
Deeply appreciated!
Why would one expect a statue to fall over on something other than the pointy bit at the end?
that "welcome" at the beginning reminded me of logging in to AOL 😆
I always assumed that this was Christian Romans in the late Empire being told to damage gods, and in defacing them, also damaged busts of emperors etc. too. There was a Christian belief that a priest had to be physically intact, so cut the nose off and they couldn’t serve. There was a Byzantine emperor whose enemies cut his nose off. The pope who crowned Charlemagne emperor had earlier that year had his nose cut off by his enemies, it it had magically grown back so he could be pope again.
It was. See Catherine Nixeys book the darkening age
@@EresirThe1st Indeed. Bought it in hardback when it came out. She has a new book out soon.
to be fair many Roman emperors were deified after their death and hence became Gods. ;)
@@zoinomiko Indeed, but quite a few weren’t. Notably Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Commodus, etc. The famous equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius wasn’t attacked, supposedly because people thought it was Constantine (although Marcus had a bushy beard and Constantine was clean shaven). Being deified as an emperor wasn’t quite the same as being Jupiter or Poseidon though. For a start, you were voted into the heavenly realm by the Senate. Tiberius was proposed but didn’t get enough votes.
@@Joanna-il2ur Haha yes fair ;) Was it really a senate vote? How the heck did Hadrian get them to vote for his twink and mother-in-law?
Outstanding, Professor. Pray tell, how about your hypothesis on why the Great Sphinx has no nose. Same reason??
Apparently - or least the tradition is - that Napoleon's artillery shot it off.
Simple...Erosion. Age. Rain, Sand. Wind.
I've read that it was chiseled off by a zealous Sufi in the 14th century, but it was probably already damaged by then.
If I had a better upbringing I would have become an historian or archaeologist and been right here in UA-cam doing the same. Love every thing you do Stone.
They were broken off because nobody had noses back then.
Many years ago I visited Rome. Our city tour guide (who just happened to look like a clone of the actor Caesar Romero) kept telling us, "Rome was destroyed more by the hands of man than by the hands of time!" Isn't it ironic that the Catholics did their best to destroy vestiges of ancient Rome, and now the art and statuary that's left are in the Vatican museum? And how about the Roman art work that's hidden away in the Vatican museums and archives?
I can't imaging burning a masterwork marble statue so you can grout some bricks... but you gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.
I wondered (humorously) once if the original artist smashed the nose off in some ritual following the dedication of the statue.
Restoring noses actually isn't that easy. I have a Roman marbel bust which once belonged to an old Italian sculptor. He decided to restore the nose but felt he could't get it right and finally took the chisel and destroyed the nose again.
0:06 Nice touch on the map about McDonald's 😂
Probably because they protrude away from the face and I'd imagine the way you have to chip away the stone would make things that stood out away from lower layers more susceptible to cracking?
While Christians had a bad feeling about statues as idols, they did come to peace with them later. Most of the destruction of statues happened during the various sackings of Rome and other barbarian attacks elsewhere in Europe. Barbarians were unlikely to cart away statues, but enjoyed damaging them to insult the culture they were attacking. Later, the Protestant Revolution caused great damage to Catholic images and churches, so if you point out the Church as destructors of Beauty, they got it back in spades in the 16th Century and beyond.
Were most of these statues originally painted? (Thinking of ancient Greek sculptures and architecture)
Yes.
@@pc239 Not the bronze ones.
5:50 between "did you feel that" and "where did my house gone" which one are you from
We have many ancient Roman monuments in my country Tunisia, and I want to know the symbols of treasures and how to obtain them
As usual, a great video. By the way, when I visited the Vatican I did go to that McDonald's!
The absolute most appropriate use of the word "vandalism".
Nobody nose
Someone played a sick game of "I got your nose ".
Such a sad topic... So many wonders lost to looting and superstition :(
Spirits inhabit even pictures, and I have seen it happen
I'm sure the breaking stops them from taking that form because it's incomplete
The nose could also be symbolic,knows is gone.... hence
A very old game of 'Got Your Nose!'
Native American Indian effigy heads are often like that'.. but, and or also.. They come with big giant wonk noses too..
It's awful what religious extremism does to humanities great works
Could anyone be so kind as to identify the painting to the far right at 6:10? It's astonishing.
It looks like something painted by Hubert Robert. He is famous from depicting crumbled ancient monuments.
It is indeed astonishing!
I don’t immediately remember the artists name, but I recall that he was French and the picture dates to the 19th century. I used it once and compared it with when they pulled down the statue of Saddam in Baghdad.
@@pizmak6268 Yes you are correct it is called Roman Ruins and is by Hubert Robert
So, if many of the existing noses are guesses by the restorers, the original subjects' appearance has been forever misrepresented. Nevertheless, I prefer a reasonable facsimile of a nose to a big gash. Roman culture is often compared unfavorably to Greek, but I like the realism of the Roman portrait statues and busts. Greek statues are too often generic, remote and impersonal.
Surprisingly this depends a lot on the subject! We have a lot more surviving Roman statuary of specific people - busts, funereal monuments, propagandic bas-reliefs etc - mixed in with the statues of gods and goddesses that tend to be more idealized. Whereas a lot of surviving Greek statuary is religious in nature (so a bigger percentage of 'idealized' statuary subjects). But there's definitely other Roman statues that follow the style of 'Greek Idealism' - Hadrian brought them back into vogue (with his philHelenism, bless him), but other emperors and influencers liked that as well.
@@zoinomiko Interesting.
You know what would really make statues come alive? Hearing a voice actor read something they wrote when you're right in front of the statue.
Wouldn't it be cool to hear somebody portraying Caesar or Nero or Lucretia say something that they actually said, even if translated, when you are right in front of what they looked like?
Yes, in classical Latin lol
Soon enough AI will be able to do it flawlessly