CA0257 Rare Grand Tour bronze of the Braschi Antinous

Fine and rare late 19th century Grand Tour cabinet bronze of the Braschi Antinous as Dionysus. Finely cast with the figure of Antinous drapped in flowing fabric holding a thyrsus in his raised left hand. Mounted onto a later serpentine marble column base. The original sculpture was discovered in excavations in 1792-1793 in the villa of Hadrian at Palestrina. It was then restored by Giovanni Pierantoni and exhibited in the Palazzo Braschi in Rome until 1844. It was later aquired for the Lateran Museum, and finally moved to the Vatican Museums, where it can be seen today. Antinous was a beautiful youth from Bythynia in Greece and the lover of the Emperor Hadrian. Deified after his death he was worshipped as a god, a hero and example of male perfection. Nice example of a very rare Grand Tour bronze. Italy, probably Rome, circa 1890.

H 28.75cm x D 8.5cm