Object Information
Accession Number:
2010.453
Object Title:
Head of Antinoos
Measurements:
H. 35 cm
Creation Date:
ca. A.D. 130-138
Credit Line:
Gift of Jonathan Kagan, 2010
Museum Name:
Culture:
Country of Origin:
Object Type:
Materials/ Techniques:
Provenance Information:
Purchased in London in the middle of 1984 from a private collector, now deceased, by Jean-Louis Domercq, Gallerie du Sycomore, Paris. Purchased by Morris Pinto, Paris, in the spring of 1988 from Domercq. Sold at auction by Sotheby’s New York on June 23, 1989, lot 185. Acquired by Mr. Jonathan Kagan, New York, from Michael Ward, New York, in 1995.
Exhibition Information:
The work has been on display in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roman court since 2007. The work was also exhibited in connection with the Sotheby’s auction in 1989.
Publication Information:
The work has been published in Sotheby’s New York Antiquities Auction, 23 June 1989, (New York 1989) lot 185; and in Hugo Meyer, Antinoos. Die archaeologischen Denkmaler unter Einbeziehung des numismatischen und epigraphischen Materials sowie der literarischen Nachrichten. Ein Beitrag zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte der hadrianisch-fruhantoninischer Zeit (Munich 1991) no. 72, pp. 93-94 illustrated.
Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970:
Cumulative facts and figures
Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above:
This work has provenance established to at least 1984 and has been exhibited publicly since 2007. It is included in the standard catalogue of the known portraits of Antinoos (Meyer 1991). Although fragmentary, its large-scale and high quality make it a desirable portrait of the emperor Hadrian’s handsome young favorite who drowned mysteriously in the Nile in A.D. 130 and became the object of a cult.