Culture: ROMAN.

Date: 2ND CENTURY AD.

Material: BRONZE.

Provenance: EX: GERMAN ART MARKET; EX: PROMINENT AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION.

Condition: INTACT, WITH TWO SMALL RIPS.

Measurements: 4.4 INCHES HIGH, (11.6 CMS).

Featuring the bust of Antinos, Emperor Hadrian's favorite companion, with wide set eyes and incised pupils, with remains of silver inlay in left eye; his wavy layered hair parted in the middle and swept back, he is wearing a necklet. The back of this bust is hollowed for fitting, with original iron pin for attachment.

Antinos, a beautiful youth and a favorite companion of Hadrian. He was a native in the town of Bithynum, in Bithynia. His beauty led the emperor to take him as his companion in all his journeys. In 132 AD, and while Hadrian was staying in Egypt, Antinos drowned in the Nile. Hadrian himself said that Antinos fell in the Nile by accident. Hadrian's grief knew no bounds, and on the spot where Antinos drawned, (the site of the ancient town of Besa), He built a city named Antinopolis, and he also built Antinoea Temples in Egypt and several parts of Greece. A number of statues were built in his memory, the constellation is among those which bears his name till today, there also numerous busts and reliefs that were made after him, and some of those figures were idealized into that of a beautiful Bacchus. Our example, is among one of those fine few, and without a doubt, one of the finest that is available today.

Cf: See lot 100, Sothebys New York Antiquities Auction, 13 June 2002, (estimate $12,000 - $18,000), see also lot 255, Christie's South Kensington Antiquities Auction, 25 April 2001, also lot 361, Bonhams London Antiquities auction, 7 November 2002. See also pp. 192-193, no. 262, Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits from Ancient Egypt, S. Walker and Bierbrier, for similar vessels portraying Antinos.

Antiquities
Ancient Roman