Bust of Antinous

A plaster bust of Antinous with draped shoulder, after the Antique, 18th century. This bust is a lead copy of the classic "Braschi" Antinous statue, a colossal sculpture from the 1st or 2nd century AD. The "Braschi" Antinous statue, often associated with Dionysus, is a famous depiction of Antinous that was found in excavations in 1792-1793 in an area presumed to have been the villa of Hadrian at Praeneste, today Palestrina. Antinous is shown in a syncretic Dionysus-Osiris pose. On his head is a crown of leaves and ivy berries, and a diadem which at the top would originally have held an Egyptian uraeus (cobra) or a lotus flower, but which the modern restorers have replaced with a sort of pinecone. Antinous was the male lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD 76-138) who drowned in the waters of the Nile in 130 A.D. and was immediately made a god by the Emperor. Celebrated throughout history for his good looks, Antinous has subsequently become a symbol of same sex love.