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The image seen to the left, and my avatar, is the famous portrait of Antinous known as the Antinous Mondragone - described by the 18th century German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann as "one of the most beautiful things in the world".
It was part of the Borghese collection and was displayed at their Villa Mondragone in Frascati near Rome in the early 19th century, until it was bought by Napoleon in 1807. It is now held at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Dating to c. 130 CE, the 95cm high white marble bust formed part of an acrolithic cult statue for the worship of the deified Antinous, and would have been originally inserted into a body made of a different material. The statue must have been some 5-6m high, the scale of which suggests it must have had some religious function and may have belonged in a temple. The eyes (now lost) were marble infill sheathed with silver, fragments of which were still intact until the 1760's, and it has drill holes for the attachment of a metal head-dress - possibly a lotus flower or uraeus - which were added later.
2 Articles
Marcus Caelius Rufus, Aug 11, 2008 - 10:46
A brief biography of one of the most interesting characters of the late Republic - the orator and politician, Marcus Caelius Rufus.
Priapos in Asia Minor, Oct 16, 2007 - 06:47
Priapos was more than a minor rustic fertility god of horticulture, viticulture, livestock and gardens
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