Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Torso of a statue of the Antinous type
Browse
Torso of a statue of the Antinous type
117-138 AD
Hadrianic
Hadrianic
Black basalt
Height: 43cm
Museum number: M1015
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 384
Not on display
Curatorial note
The material, the possible position of the arms and particularly the powerfully constructed but somewhat too fleshy chest suggest the possibility that this torso is a Hadrianic adaptation of an earlier Greek Fifth Century original used to represent Antinous. The most direct adaptation of this nude, standing athletic type to the portrait features of the young favourite is the statue in the Banca Nazionale, Rome1 which preserves the strongly constructed hardness of the prototype figures. The statuette in Berlin2 parallels the Soane torso not only in material but in softened surface modelling of the body, although the torso carries the heaviness of the chest one step further-toward the type of the Braschi Antinous of the Vatican3.
On these various statues and statuettes of Antinous, see Ch. W. Clairmont, Die Bildnisse des Antinous, Rome 1966, especially pp.48, no.28, 52, no.41 (Banca Nazionale and Berlin). Clairmont lists sixty-six prototypes and copies of Antinous in monumental sculpture.
1 Einzelaufnahmen, no. 1174.
2 Blümel, Römische Bildnisse, p. 24, R56, pl. 35.
3 P. Marconi in Mon. Ant., XXIX, 1923, p. 224ff., fig. 2, pl. II; Delphi, Berlin and Banca statues compared.
On these various statues and statuettes of Antinous, see Ch. W. Clairmont, Die Bildnisse des Antinous, Rome 1966, especially pp.48, no.28, 52, no.41 (Banca Nazionale and Berlin). Clairmont lists sixty-six prototypes and copies of Antinous in monumental sculpture.
1 Einzelaufnahmen, no. 1174.
2 Blümel, Römische Bildnisse, p. 24, R56, pl. 35.
3 P. Marconi in Mon. Ant., XXIX, 1923, p. 224ff., fig. 2, pl. II; Delphi, Berlin and Banca statues compared.
Provenance
Unrecorded
Literature
Michaelis, p. 475, no. 7.
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk