Bust of young Hadrian. Rome, 2nd century A.D.

Bust of young Hadrian. Rome, 2nd century A.D.
Marble.

This exceptional Roman marble portrait of Emperor Hadrian (ca. A.D. 130-140) follows the models of the one preserved in the Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology, is of great scholarly interest because it belongs to a rare iconographic type. The sculpture depicts Hadrian as a young man, with his head turned to the right. His most distinctive feature is the beard covering the neck and jaw, contrasting with the shaven cheeks.

The piece is remarkable because its iconography assimilates him to the Greek hero Diomedes, with whom he shares the beard, the turn of the head and the youthful features. This depiction (in which the lower part suggests heroic garb such as a belt and cape) reflects a shift in imperial portraiture: heroic symbolism and connection to Roman origins (Diomedes stole the Palladium from Troy) become more crucial than exact physical resemblance. It should be noted that the original bust was supplemented with an extension in the 17th century for display.

The origin of the Roman portrait appears to be linked more to a concept than to a plastic expression, and reflects like no other artistic genre the vital philosophy of that people. In its formation it is possible to detect three roots: the Etruscan-Italic, the Greek and the autochthonous current of the "maiorum imagines" or funerary masks. The combination of all of them will result in an unmistakable and genuine work that, despite the logical differences gradually imbued by the provincial workshops, will evolve in parallel in all the territories of the Roman Empire. The portrait of the Republican period is already interested in the serious and serious personality of the models, especially of the rulers, bringing an energy and a decision to the statues that we also find in this bust. At first they were busts that only included the head and part of the neck, but they were gradually lengthened to represent also the shoulders and chest. There were also full-length and equestrian portraits, although this last formula was only used for the emperors. In fact, that of the emperor is the most frequent model of Roman sculpture, constituting the model for the rest of the portraits, in the private sphere.