Journal Article

Antinous

Opper, Thorsten

2006

Overview

Review of exhibition, \"Antinous: the face of the Antique\", at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. It broke new ground by presenting these iconic portraits of Antinous outside the context of Hadrianic art and offered a rare opportunity to compare a number of replicas, revealing the enormous range of ancient carving techniques and sculptural language employed in their production. It will stimulate fresh thinking, and two problems present themselves: the period over which these images were produced; and the functions they served. Current archaeological orthodoxy - that the portraits were all carved between the death of Antinous in 130 A.D. and the death of Hadrian in 138 A.D - is almost certainly wrong, though any redating will have significant consequences for the history of art of the second century A.D. Regarding their function in antiquity, the phenomenon centred on the imperial court in Rome and on the Greek-speaking provinces of the Empire, so was this really an expression of the symbiotic relationship between the bereaved Hadrian and his Greek subjects? We should consider a radical revision: that the Antinous phenomenon was developed as a cultural tool of Roman power politics, allowing the Greeks peacefully to celebrate their own special status rather than take up arms like the recently subjugated Dacians or the Jews. (Quotes from original text)