Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:
Braschi Antinous
Alternate Title:
Colossus of Antinous
Image View:
Detail of head wreathed with ivy leaves and berries from below left
Creator:
unknown (Roman (ancient))
Location:
repository: Musei Vaticani (Rome (Vatican City), Santa Sede (Holy See), Italy) Inv. 256
Location Note:
Pio Clementino Museum, Round Hall (Sala Rotonda)
GPS:
41.906389 12.454444
Date:
ca. 135 CE (creation)
Cultural Context:
Roman (ancient)
Style Period:
Greco-Roman; Imperial (Roman)
Work Type 1:
sculpture (visual work)
Classification:
sculpture
Material:
marble
Technique:
carving (processes)
Measurements:
11 ft (height)
Description:
This colossal sculpture was found in excavations in 1792-1793 in an area presumed to have been the villa of Hadrian at Praeneste, today Palestrina. It was restored by Giovanni Pierantoni and exhibited in the Palazzo Braschi in Rome until 1844; it eventually moved to the Vatican Museums. Antinous was Hadrian's favorite who drowned in the waters of the Nile in 130 CE and was immediately made a god by the Emperor. Is this statue, which dates from the years immediately following his death, Antinous is shown in a syncretic Dionysus-Osiris pose. On his head is a crown of leaves and ivy berries, and a diadem which at the top would originally have held a cobra (uraeus) or a lotus flower, but which the modern restorers have replaced with a large bud more like a magnolia (this is frequently also referred to as a "pine cone", but it is the thyrsus staff which is topped with a pine cone). (Source: Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) [website]; http://mv.vatican.va /)
Collection:
Adjunct Module A: Italian Art
Identifier:
7A3-R-VM-CA-A12
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Braschi Antinous