Close-up of the torso of the emperor on the Sebasteion panel depicting Tiberius and a captive.
While in the Renaissance most carvers would work around a rounded form, like a leg or arm, in the Roman period carvers were happy to work down the length of these forms. The tool marks on the legs of this figure show that the carver was working down them diagonally. Another point to note in this detail is the fact that the drill holes in the drapery are largely hidden from view and most of them carved out with a channelling tool. Drill holes are rarely left visible on the Sebasteion and more generally in the Julio-Claudian period, while they become increasingly left visible in the second and third centuries AD.
