Bronze Bust On Marble Socle Antinous Rome Grand Tour XIX Century

This small bronze represents, as the inscription indicates, the portrait of Antinous, lover of Emperor Hadrian, whom he deified after his death in 130 AD. It is of the so-called Braschi type, now in the Vatican Museums.
It rests on a green and black marble base and can be dated between 1850's and 1880's.

The original sculpture comes from excavations in 1792-1793 in the area of a presumed villa of Hadrian near Palestrina, the ancient Praeneste. Restored by Giovanni Pierantoni, it was displayed in Palazzo Braschi until 1844, when it was purchased for the Lateran Museum, and finally moved to its current location. Antinous is depicted in the syncretic aspect of Dionysus-Osiris. His hair is adorned with a crown of ivy leaves and berries. The head is surmounted by a diadem, which once featured a uraeus (cobra) or lotus flower, which in the modern restoration has been replaced by a sort of pine cone. The Dionysian attributes of the thyrsus and the mystic cista are also modern additions.