This month's sculpture from Hadrian's Villa is a grey basalt Osiris-Canopus jar. The vase represents a form of the Egyptian god Osiris depicted as a jar topped by a human head known as Osiris-Hydreios, or commonly Osiris-Canopus, because it was originally exclusively connected to the Canopic region of Egypt. It was discovered in the middle… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Osiris-Canopus jar
This month's sculptures from Hadrian's Villa are a pair of dark-grey marble statues of centaurs. The sculptures became famous due to their sculptors' outstanding workmanship and the rarity and high quality of their materials. The group was carved in bigio morato marble from the quarries of Göktepe near Aphrodisias in Caria (modern-day Turkey). The statues… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: The Furietti Centaurs
This month's sculpture from Hadrian's Villa is a fragment of a dark grey marble panel with depictions of a centaur and a herm of Hercules. Formerly the property of the duke Braschi in Tivoli, the relief was acquired by the National Roman Museum in 1913 from Giorgio Sangiorgi, a well-known antique dealer whose gallery was in the… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Fragment of a marble panel with Dionysiac subjects
While Hadrian was visiting the province of Egypt in late AD 130, his favourite, Antinous, drowned in the Nile River in mysterious circumstances. This tragic event led to the creation of a new divinity: Osirantinous, or Antinous, as a manifestation of Osiris, the god who dies and is reborn. One of our best sources of… Continue reading The Obelisk of Antinous
This month's masterpiece from Hadrian's Villa is a series of heavily restored mosaic panels depicting bucolic scenes with animals. The first panel depicts a rocky landscape with a flock of goats peacefully grazing by a stream. A bronze statue dressed in a long tunic is standing on a rock. It holds a bunch of grapes… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Three mosaic panels with bucolic scenes
This month's sculptures from Hadrian's Villa are portraits of Roman emperors and empresses who rose to power after Hadrian. After the death of Hadrian in 138 AD, the Villa was occasionally used by his various successors. Busts of the emperors Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Septimius Severus and Caracalla have been found on the… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Imperial portraits of Hadrian’s successors
This month's sculpture from Hadrian's Villa is a headless statue of Athena of the Vescovali-Arezzo Type made of Luna marble. The goddess is depicted wrapped in a himation (cloak). She wears her aegis bordered with small snakes over the shoulders. She stands with her left hand resting on her hip and would have carried a spear… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Headless statue of Athena
This month's sculpture from Hadrian's Villa is a dark grey limestone relief decorated with mythological scenes. The relief was unearthed in 1769 during excavations undertaken by the art dealer and archaeologist Gavin Hamilton who sold it to Lord Lansdowne. The latter was an avid collector of antiquities who owned a fine collection of classical sculptures… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: The Lansdowne Relief
This month’s masterpieces from Hadrian’s Villa are the larger-than-life-size marble theatrical masks that once decorated the scaenae frons (stage-building) of the odeon of the villa. The theatre and theatrical performances were particularly popular in Graeco-Roman art. We find many depictions of theatrical scenery, actors and masks in almost all kinds of art, from sculptures to… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: The marble theatrical masks
This month's sculpture from Hadrian's Villa is a marble statue of a dancing female figure, thought to be a portrait of Praxilla of Sikyon. Praxilla was a female poet writing in the mid-fifth century BC. She came from Sikyon, a city situated on a fertile coastal plain beside the Corinthian Gulf in the northeast Peloponnese… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Marble statue of a dancing female figure
