Portrait of Antinous as Dionysus

myminifactory

The portrait head of this sculpture comes from an original type depicting Antinous as the Roman god of Wine, Dionysus, identified by a wreath of ivy on his crown. The rest of the bust is a modern addition to which the head is attached. A full figure version can be found at The Vatican (Sala Rotonda 540) and was originally draped in bronze. The Emperor Hadrian became deeply obsessed with Antinous, a young man from Asia Minor, to the extent that he created a cult of Antinous after the young man's death in 130 CE. Hadrian also loved Classical Greek sculpture, so he made numerous sculptures of the beautiful youth in various guises as gods. Here we see Antinous as Dionysos, the Greek wine god. Inspiration from fifth century BCE Greek sculpture is clear, although a sense of brooding romance added to this sculpture means it could never be mistaken for the work of Pheidias or other High Classical masters. The faculty at Cambridge University's Classics department is the source of this information.