Modern Italians who resemble busts from the classical era

[Angela]

These are all 100% Southern Italian-Americans so far as I know, except for Ralph Macchio, who is 1/4 Greek. They're not clones, but they're definitely the same type to my eyes.

Vespasian-Roman Emperor, since people don't seem to recognize him

Vincent Gardenia:

Cicero

Danny Aiello:

Marcus Agrippa:

Mark Ruffalo:

Portrait of an ancient Roman in Britain:

Victor Mature

Tiberius

Frank Sinatra:

Head of Pan:

Ralph Macchio

Robert Loggia, a Sicilian American actor who also has a very "Roman" look imo.

 

[Jovialis]

Marisa Tomei

Julia Flavia

Tomei's parents are both of Italian descent; her father's ancestors came from Tuscany, Calabria, and Campania; while her mother's ancestors are from Tuscany and Sicily.^{[3][4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marisa_Tomei}

 

[Alyan]

It's obvious that the Romans were just Central to South Italians with maybe some mixture from up north.

 

[Angela]

That wasn't the bone of contention. We have no idea yet what the ancient Romans were like autosomally because no analysis of ancient "Roman" remains from, say, the area of Rome in the Republican or Early Imperial period, has been published, so I don't know where you get your certainty. I'm content to wait for the science to speak.

This is another issue. The statement was made on another thread that Southern Italians don't look anything like the portrait busts and other representations of ancient Romans.

That's patently absurd if you're familiar with either and don't need glasses. Some do, some don't.

 

[Jovialis]

There are people that can be found that resemble Roman busts from all over Italy, imo

 

[Angela]

Gianni Agnelli-Torino (Fiat)

Emilio Pucci-Toscana (clothes designer)

Marcello Lippi-Toscana (soccer coach)

Franco Nero...incredibly gorgeous actor...half Pugliese, but I don't know about the other half. Perhaps Parmigiano as he was born there?

 

[Jovialis]

Gianni Agnelli-Torino (Fiat)

Emilio Pucci-Toscana (clothes designer)

Marcello Lippi-Toscana (soccer coach)

Franco Nero...incredibly gorgeous actor...half Pugliese, but I don't know about the other half. Perhaps Parmigiano as he was born there?

Good ones!

 

[Salento]

There are people that can be found that resemble Roman busts from all over Italy, imo

I think so too.
(Edited from Maldini and Ancient Roman)

 

[Ygorcs]

I'll just copy and paste (with a few editions) my off-topic comment posted in the other thread, as I think it has something do with the examples above.

Answering to the comment below by Aaron1981:

I've stated this before, but whenever I see Roman busts, I don't see any similarity between the large immigrant communities of Italians in places like Canada and USA. I'm not sure why this is, perhaps because those immigrants came largely from the south of Italy.

The bust Angela posted looks more like a modern French male, and to a lesser extent a English male (of the non-Nordic variety).

Really? For me it's exactly the opposite experience: every time I see a Roman bust, I think My God, these people are exactly the same as the Italian tourists in my city (Italians and Portuguese are the most numerous foreign tourists here) and a lot of Italian-Brazilians! I swear I have seen some Italians who look identical to some of those busts. Maybe that may have something to do with subjective impressions, or maybe with the point of origin of the immigrants (and tourists) we're seeing.

Most immigrants from Italy (and there are a whole 30 million descendants of them now in Brazil) came here, mainly in the period 1870-1930, from the North (mainly) & Central regions of Italy, not from the South. But since then many of them have mixed extensively with the descendants of Portuguese, Spaniards and South Italians, so they probably became a bit more "southern-shifted" than unadmixed Northern Italians. In any case, native Italians from Central Italy look even closer to Roman statues and busts in my opinion.

 

[Pax Augusta]

Claudio Ranieri (from Rome, Lazio) looks ancient Roman and may resemble busts from the classical era.

 

[Angela]

Claudio Ranieri (from Rome, Lazio) looks ancient Roman and may resemble busts from the classical era.

Good one! Thanks. There's always Totti, of course, from Lazio.

 

[Cato]

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/application/files/6814/7411/8261/tum291817.jpg

https://le-citazioni.it/media/authors/23672_jacopo-volpi.jpeg



Utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[Angela]

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/application/files/6814/7411/8261/tum291817.jpg

https://le-citazioni.it/media/authors/23672_jacopo-volpi.jpeg



Utilizzando Tapatalk

Also good ones. Hope you don't mind. For ease of viewing:

 

[Pax Augusta]

Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) and Tuscan Walter Mazzarri

Walter Mazzarri

 

[Pax Augusta]

Emilio Pucci-Toscana (clothes designer)

According to Italian sources, he was born in Naples to a Florentine father and to a Neapolitan mother. Both his parents belonged to noble families.

Franco Nero...incredibly gorgeous actor...half Pugliese, but I don't know about the other half. Perhaps Parmigiano as he was born there?

Unclear, but according to a newspaper both his parents are Apulian (from San Severo, Foggia)

 

[Angela]

According to Italian sources, he was born in Naples to a Florentine father and to a Neapolitan mother. Both his parents belonged to noble families.







Unclear, but according to a newspaper both his parents are Apulian (from San Severo, Foggia)

He looks it.

 

[Jovialis]

Young Al Pacino with a beard looks a lot like this bust of Marcus Aurelius imo. Particularly in the area surrounding his eyes.

 

[Salento]

Half Italian, but he PROUDLY called himself the Italian Stallion, so he too deserve to be mentioned, imo
Sylvester Stallone is half Italian.
His father was born in Gioia del Colle, Apulia, Italy.

I see some Mark Antony on him, just a little.

 

[davef]

These modern examples are amazing, they really do resemble those statues down to the last detail

 

[Maciamo]

I think that Mike Pompeo also looks quite Roman (a resemblance with Cicero). He is only half Italian on his father side (from Abruzzo).

There was some diversity of phenotypes among ancient Romans. Several nobles from the Late Republic or Early Empire have a distinctive type with a slightly triangular face, protruding ears, big eyes and a medium-sized narrow nose that is not common anywhere today, like these.

Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger

Emperor Augustus

Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus

Emperor Tiberius

Emperor Caligula

Emperor Claudius

Unknown bust

This type contrasts a lot with other Romans of the same period like Sulla, Pompey, Cicero, Seneca, Mark Antony, Agrippa, etc.