Marble Portrait Head of Antinous
Marble Portrait Head of Antinous
3D
Published 2021-09-01T12:26:54+00:00
Antinous, the young beloved of the Roman emperor Hadrian, drowned in the River Nile during an imperial visit to Egypt in AD 130. In accordance with Egyptian custom, the distraught emperor initiated a cult venerating the dead youth, for the Egyptians believed that those who met such a death became assimilated to Osiris, god of the Underworld.
Outside Egypt, numerous statues of Antinous were erected that represent him as a beautiful youth, often in the guise of Dionysus, a Greek god closely related to Osiris. This head is a good example of the sophisticated portrait type created by imperial sculptors to incorporate what must have been actual features of the boy in an idealized image that conveys a god-like beauty. The ovoid face with a straight brow, almond-shaped eyes, smooth cheeks, and fleshy lips is surrounded by abundant tousled curls. The ivy wreath encircling his head associates him with Dionysus, a guarantor of renewal and good fortune.
| Date published | 01/09/2021 |
| Complessità | Medium |
| Title | Marble Portrait Head of Antinous |
| Date | 130–138 A.D. |
| Dimension | 24.1 x 21 cm |
| Accession | 1996.401 |
| Period | Late Hadrianic |
| Medium | Marble |
| Credit | Gift of Bronson Pinchot, in recognition of his mother Rosina Asta Pinchot, 1996 |
| Record | https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/256530 |
| Artist | Unknown artist |
| Place | Metropolitan Museum of Art |