The dataset presented here includes sculptural portraits of Roman emperors (mostly carved from marble or casted in bronze) that were collected for the purposes of analyzing the representation of Roman emperors in freestanding sculpture as part of the NWO funded research project "Constraints and Tradition: Roman Power in Changing Societies" (2017-2021). The dataset consists of processed data. Entries in the dataset were collected using museum catalogues and archaeological/art-historical reports. The dataset includes portrait heads (when applicable: together with their accompanying body and base) and provides detailed information on their provenance, formal features, iconography, context.