Art History's Most Eligible Bachelors: Antinous

New contender for Art History's most eligible bachelor: Antinous. Check out this new hottie in his guise as Apollo or an Egyptian pharoah, or sample his party side as he takes on the oenophilic role of Bacchus. Don't let his tendency to drown in the Nile fool you, he's got a Roman Emperor at his back and isn't afraid to smite you with his devilishly good looks and posthumously divinized power source from the world beyond. This curly coiffed beaut is every girl's, and male Roman Emperor's, dreamboat (just don't let him fall over the edge, cause he can't swim alone).



Publius Aelius Hadrianus, better known simply as Hadrian, ruled the Roman Empire from 117 to 138 AD. He was a highly intellectual and powerful ruler with both military prowess and an appreciation for the arts. In addition to his many achievements in the Roman world, Hadrian possessed a strong affinity for Greek culture, no doubt heightened by his amorous relationship with a young Greek named Antinous. While their relationship in both public and private was not questioned, Hadrian’s reaction to Antinous’ untimely death in the Nile in 130 AD caused a great deal of controversy. Antinous was granted many honors by his imperial companion, leading many Romans to either worship or reject the young man after his death. His portrait became a symbol widely recognized throughout the empire. The sculpture "Antinous in the guise of an Egyptian Pharaoh" serves as an archetype of the posthumous portraiture of the young Greek found throughout the Roman world and alludes to the social and political implications that were embedded in his image.

Speculation of how Antinous met his end has been highly controversial. Whether he died tragically, sacrificed himself in a ritualistic attempt to prolong Hadrian’s life, or committed suicide to prove his love for a man he had grown too old to continue a relationship with is not as important as recognizing the legacy established by the emperor’s means of mourning his death. Hadrian planned and named a city for his deceased lover. The place was to be called Antinoopolis, directly honoring the newly divinized figure. Because of this and Hadrian’s institution of a cult at Mantinea commemorating him, Antinous had an extensive life after death. Hadrian did not require the worship of his lost lover outside of these two established commemorations, but to gain favor with the ruling body, many members of the elite class commissioned temples and statues in honor of Antinous. His image was repeated throughout the entire empire, almost as widely distributed as the imperial portraiture of the ruler himself. Continuity in his representation suggests an artist appointed by Hadrian created an archetype for his portrait. His curly hair, muscular body, handsome face, and downcast eyes can be found across the Empire from Rome to Greece and all the way to Egypt.


At first glance the statue of "Antinous in the guise of an Egyptian Pharaoh" appears to be a standard Egyptian portrait in the round. True to Egyptian sculptural form, it shows the full, three-dimensional view of a semi-nude male body. The body is shown frontally with the head straight forward, arms held down to the sides, and one foot stepping in front of the other. He is wearing the traditional royal accoutrement of an Egyptian pharaoh. His head is adorned with the Nemes headdress that covers the forehead and crown of the head and hangs down over each shoulder. Not as elaborate as some of the examples of this garb found in ancient statuary, the Nemes here is decorated with a simple banded design as the headdress bows out in a triangular shape from the top of the head. Though the Nemes covers Antinous’ characteristically curly coif, we can compare his facial features to other depictions of the figure, such as "Antinous in the guise of Apollo" from Delphi, to identify him. Around his waist is the royal kilt, the Shendyt, which is a standard piece of clothing for the pharaohs. The flap of fabric that hangs in the center between the folds designates the garb as that of a pharaoh rather than a deity. These visual cues immediately bring to mind the iconic imagery of the Egyptian leaders.

Upon closer observation, however, it becomes obvious that this statue is not one of traditional Egyptian origin. This image lacks the stylized rigidity of the pharaohs of the ancient kingdoms. Placement of the left leg protruding forward is the same, but in this version, the leg is slightly bent, in a realistic example of weight shift, instead of impossibly straight making the leg awkward and unnaturally long as it was in pharaonic portraits. In response to the bent leg, the hips shift slightly, further emphasizing a naturalistic stance. This contrapposto is a prime example of Greek influence in the portrait, a nod to the subject’s national origins as well as Roman figurative style. Contrapposto weight shift in the hips and legs, though it typically involves the shoulders as well, is a Greek, and later Roman, motif most notably seen in Polykleito’s "Doryphoros" and carried throughout the subsequent span of classical statuary. His shoulders remain perfectly forward to maintain the Egyptian standard, but his arms bend slightly at the elbows to appear more natural and alive.

Unlike the highly stylized body shape of the Egyptian pharaohs, Antinous is depicted with a more naturalistic figural rendering. The individual musculature and fuller body features appear to be anatomically accurate except for a slightly bizarre display of the pectoral muscles. Free space separates his limbs and appendages from the core of his body, no longer needing to follow the Egyptian belief that the ka, or spirit, of a person would return to the statues in the afterlife requiring them to keep from breaking or losing fragments. To further ensure stability of the sculpture, Egyptians used much stronger material such as diorite rather than the marble found here that was typical of Roman statuary.

Antinous gathered a vast following with his separation from Hadrian that even outlasted many of the emperors before, during, and after his time. His portrait was distributed throughout the empire in a seemingly organized fashion reminiscent of the dissemination of imperial portraiture to the empires provinces and colonies. Representations of his image went beyond statuary to both works of art and banal objects of every day use. His godlike body and individualized, sensuous face made him an almost pagan-like deity worthy of consideration and praise in the public, in people’s homes, and even in history. This godly appearance, in accordance with his posthumous divination, however, left many of the Christian Romans unhappy with the spread of the Antinous cult. They saw the worship of his image as a sort of divine adversary to the worship of the spirit of Christ.

Hadrian did not care to acknowledge the controversies surrounding his commemorative efforts on behalf of Antinous and had his own set of statues made to appease his bereavement. "Antinous in the guise of an Egyptian Pharaoh" was one of dozens found at the emperor’s villa at Tivoli. Recent archaeology at the site has revealed that the emperor most likely had a shrine built to honor Antinous-Osiris, making this image of him not only important for our understanding of his many guises but also of our understanding of how Hadrian chose to remember one of the most important figures in his life.

Antinous, of Greek origins, also became a symbol for the Greek people’s personal identity while still celebrating their fidelity to Rome. He became a symbolic personification of the reunion of Greece and Rome, the Mediterranean world’s two classically principal cultures. This statue shows these aspects of the man, while also bringing in the importance of the Egyptian provinces for the Roman Empire at the time.