The ''Antinous Farnese'' is a marble sculptural representation of

Antinous Antinous, also called Antinoös, (; grc-gre, Ἀντίνοος; 27 November – before 30 October 130) was a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite and probable lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Following his premature death before his ...

that was sculpted between 130 and 137 CE. Antinous was the lover to Roman Emperor

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...

; the emperor who, after Antinous's death, perpetuated the image of Antinous as a Roman god within the Roman empire. This sculpture is a part of the Roman Imperial style and was sculpted during a revival of Greek culture, initiated by Hadrian's

philhellenism Philhellenism ("the love of Greek culture") was an intellectual movement prominent mostly at the turn of the 19th century. It contributed to the sentiments that led Europeans such as Lord Byron and Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek i ...

. Its found spot and provenance are unknown, but this sculpture is currently a part of the

Farnese Collection The classical sculptures in the Farnese Collection, one aspect of this large art collection, are one of the first collections of artistic items from Greco-Roman Antiquity. It includes some of the most influential classical works, including the sc ...

in the

Naples National Archaeological Museum The National Archaeological Museum of Naples ( it, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, italic=no, sometimes abbreviated to MANN) is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes wo ...

History

was the Greek lover to the Roman emperor

in the second century CE. Often referenced to as Hadrian's favorite, or more affectionately Hadrian's boyfriend, Antinous was born a slave in

Bithynium Bithynium or Bithynion ( grc, Βιθύνιον) was a city in the interior of Bithynia, lying above Tius, as Strabo describes it, and possessing the country around Salone or Salon, which was a good feeding country for cattle, and noted for its chee ...

110 CE and is speculated to have drowned in the river

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

before his twentieth birthday in 130 CE. The circumstances of Antinous's death vary by account, though the most popular theories range from accidental, to suicide, and even those that are sacrificial in nature. In honor of his lover, Hadrian established the city of Antinoopolis in Egypt the same year Antinous drowned. Hadrian also went on to deify Antinous postmortem by including him as a figure of the

Roman imperial cult The Roman imperial cult identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority (''auctoritas'') of the Roman State. Its framework was based on Roman and Greek precedents, and was formulated during the early ...

; because of this, sculptures of Antinous were produced in large quantities for cult worship. The extent of Hadrian and Antinous's close relationship is contested by some. While it was common for men to be sexually involved with one another at this time, this involvement was generally limited to a physical nature. It's widely believed their relationship went beyond a

pederastic Pederasty or paederasty ( or ) is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a pubescent or adolescent boy. The term ''pederasty'' is primarily used to refer to historical practices of certain cultures, particularly ancient Greece and anc ...

relationship; suggesting therein that Hadrian and Antinous had developed an emotional relationship with one another, which was generally looked down upon by other Roman elites. Within a pederastic relationship, Hadrian would fulfill the role of ''erastes'', the dominant man, and Antinous would fulfill the role of ''

eromenos In ancient Greece, an ''eromenos'' was the younger and passive (or 'receptive') partner in a male homosexual relationship. The partner of an ''eromenos'' was the ''erastes'', the older and active partner. The ''eromenos'' was often depicted as a ...

'', the submissive male partner. Upon Antinous's death in 130 CE, Hadrian sought to revitalize Classical Greek sculpture tradition with Roman subject matter. Hadrian's appreciation for Greek art and culture is known as philhellenism, and that love for all things Greek awarded him the nickname "The Greekling." Within Hadrian's lifetime he had visited Greece on three separate occasions, participated in the Greek Olympics, and founded a Greek city-state alliance known as the

Panhellenion The Panhellenion ( el, Πανελλήνιον) or Panhellenium was a league of Greek city-states established in the year 131–132 AD by the Roman Emperor Hadrian while he was touring the Roman Greece, Roman provinces of Greece. Hadrian was Philh ...

the year of Antinous's death.

Description

''Antinous'' is a free standing marble sculpture

in the round A theatre in the round, arena theatre or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage. Theatre-in-the-round was common in ancient theatre, particularly that of Greece and Rome, but was not widely explored aga ...

. The philhellenic elements of this statue are drawn from its visual style, while the ''Farnese Antinous'' was sculpted in the Roman period, Antinous emulates an athlete in the Classical Greek style. Specifically, this sculpture is emulated after

Polykleitos Polykleitos ( grc, Πολύκλειτος) was an ancient Greek sculptor in bronze of the 5th century BCE. Alongside the Athenian sculptors Pheidias, Myron and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the most important sculptors of classical antiqu ...

' statue ''

Doryphoros The ''Doryphoros'' (Greek Δορυφόρος Classical Greek , "Spear-Bearer"; Latinised as ''Doryphorus'') of Polykleitos is one of the best known Greek sculptures of Classical antiquity, depicting a solidly built, muscular, standing warrior, o ...

''. The most discernible difference between the two is that Antinous is an adolescent youth, while Doryphorus is sculpted as a young adult. Similarities between Antinous and Doryphorus can be drawn with the nude form, use of

contrapposto ''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the a ...

, the stoic expression, as well as the outstretched arm. Doryphorus holds a spear, and Antinous appears to hold something himself in his right hand. The ''Antinous Farnese'' can be identified as a Roman imperial piece rather than Greek Classical by noting the engraved pupils, which was a trend set in Roman sculpture by Hadrian himself. Other Hadrianic-Imperial details of this statue can be seen in the volume of the hair and carved out nostrils, as these features were formed with a drilling techniques that allowed the Romans to explore texture differences in the hair versus skin in ways that hadn't been before. Another indication that this sculpture is Roman, not Greek, is the inclusion of a structural support on the back right leg, casually disguised as a log. This structural support, also known as a

strut A strut is a structural component commonly found in engineering, aeronautics, architecture and anatomy. Struts generally work by resisting longitudinal compression, but they may also serve in tension. Human anatomy Part of the functionality o ...

, may have helped further identify Antinous within the context of its time. File:Antinous Farnese MAN Napoli Inv6030 n06.jpg, The ''Farnese Antinous'' with engraved pupils and signature wig-like hair. File:Antinous Farnese MAN Napoli Inv6030 n02.jpg, Antinous standing in contrapposto, with a support behind his right leg

Identifying Antinous

There are three styles in which Antinous is traditionally depicted: the Mondragone style, the Egyptianizing style, and the Haupttypus style. The Haupttypus style is also known as the main or original style because it is the most popular style of Antinous sculpture. The Farnese sculpture falls within the Haupttypus style. Within the Haupttypus style there are two variations, the first Haupttypus variation depicts Antinous with a curl over his brow, and the other does without it. By sculpting Antinous with consistent conventions artists could delineate Antinous from other Greek mythological figures. The body and face of this sculpture are in idealized youth, with plump cheeks and round face, and his hair is usually unkempt. Antinous's hair has also been described as artificial looking, even wig-like, because of how similar the placement of his hair is across statues. His youthful appearance, large eyes, pouting lips, and layered locks of hair over his forehead are some of the

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

that can be used to identify him. The iconography of Antinous' appearance is so steady across mediums that portraits of Antinous on coins were used in attributing this sculpture as himself. This uniformity, particularly in the uniform layout of his curled locks, implies this portrait was made en masse for artists in the Roman empire to make further copies of. The extensive deification of Antinous as a cult figure has made his likeness the most common recovered portrait type from Classical Antiquity. Despite the large quantity of Antinous statues available for viewing, art historians do not actually know what Antinous looks like because of how heavily he is idealized in his portraits. It was expected that Antinous be sculpted as a deity rather than a man, and by conforming to those standards, it's unknown whether this marble depiction of him, or any depiction of him, is accurate or not. File:Antinous Mondragone Louvre Ma1205.jpg, ''

Antinous Mondragone The ''Antinous Mondragone'' is a high marble example of the Mondragone type of the deified Antinous. This colossal head was made sometime in the period between 130 AD to 138 AD and then is believed to have been rediscovered in the early 18th cen ...

'', in the Mondragone Style File:Standing-striding egyptianized figure of Antinoo - Ägyptisches Museum - Munich - Germany 2017 (2).jp
Antinous As Osiris
in the Egyptianizing Style

Provenance

The ''Farnese Antinous'' was named after its one-time owners the Farnese family. The original provenance for this work of art is unknown, however, there are works of art within the Farnese collection that have some provenance established, such as the

Farnese Hercules The ''Farnese Hercules'' ( it, Ercole Farnese) is an ancient statue of Hercules, probably an enlarged copy made in the early third century AD and signed by Glykon, who is otherwise unknown; the name is Greek but he may have worked in Rome. Like ...

and the

Farnese Bull The ''Farnese Bull'' ( it, Toro Farnese), formerly in the Farnese collection in Rome, is a massive Roman elaborated copy of a Hellenistic sculpture. It is the largest single sculpture yet recovered from antiquity. Along with the rest of the Fa ...

. It was once displayed at the entrance to the Carracci Gallery in the

Palazzo Farnese Palazzo Farnese () or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance List of palaces in Italy#Rome, palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and cur ...

in Rome, from which it was taken to Naples to the Royal Borbonic Museum (Reale Museo Borbonico), now the

(a replica was put in place in the Palazzo in the 1970s).

References

External links