Portrait of Antinous as Dionysus

myminifactory

The portrait head of this sculpture originates from an original sculpture type depicting Antinous as the Roman god of Wine, Dionysus, as identified as his crown of a wreath of ivy. The rest of the bust is a modern addition to which the head is fixed to. The full figure version can be found at The Vatican (Sala Rotonda 540) and was originally draped in bronze. The Emperor Hadrian became obsessed with Antinous, a young man from Asia Minor, to the extent that the Emperor created a cult of Antinous when the young man died, in 130 CE. Hadrian also loved Classical Greek sculpture, so had made a number of sculptures of the beautiful youth in the guise of various gods. Here we see Antinous as Dionysos the Greek wine god. The inspiration from fifth century BCE Greek sculpture is clear, although the added sense of brooding romance in this sculpture means it could never be mistaken for the work of Pheidias or the other High Classical masters. Source; Cambridge Faculty of Classics