Henry Moore Institute
a centre of the study of sculpture
7 June 2006
74 The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AH
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Press Release
Antinous: the face of the Antique
Main Galleries, Henry Moore Institute
25 May - 27 August 2006
‘But I have been more preoccupied by the face of another. As soon as he began to count in my life art
ceased to be luxury and became a resource, a form of succour. I have forced this image upon the world:
there are today more portraits of that youth than of any illustrious man whatsoever, or of any queen.’
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian
The Emperor Hadrian’s young lover was Antinous, a beautiful youth who drowned mysteriously in the
Nile before his 20th birthday. The Emperor, in his grief, commissioned busts and statues of his beloved,
and as the cult of Antinous spread throughout the Roman Empire, many more were erected by his
subjects.
Today Antinous has more sculptures to his name than almost any other figure from classical antiquity. The
earliest of these finds were identified by comparison to tiny coin-portraits, each with an identifying
legend, so that by the sixteenth century his aquiline nose and full lips were well known. Yet such was his
appeal that as more and more heads, busts and statues were unearthed, there was a temptation to call those
of any young pretty boy ‘Antinous’. Into the modern age, archaeologists and scholars have worked
studiously to define the corpus of Antinous portraiture, basing their identification primarily on his
hairstyle.
Drawing together loans from all over Europe, this is the first exhibition dedicated to Antique sculpture to
be held at the Institute and the first in Britain to explore the mythical image of Antinous. As a subject,
Antinous works not only to provide a very human way into looking at Antique sculpture, but also as an
introduction to some of the thorniest issues surrounding work of this period. Issues of recognition,
restoration and re-naming are all present, and to a degree we can deal with these by simply asking: does it
look like him?
This exhibition has been selected by Dr Caroline Vout, of the University of Nottingham, and will be
accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, with essay and entries by Dr Vout, along with extracts from
more historical texts.
ENDS
For further information and images, please contact: Press Enquiries, Henry Moore Institute, tel: 0113 246 7467 / e-mail: press@henry-moore.ac.uk or Judy
Adam, tel: 07957 121288 / email: mail@judyadam.co.uk or visit: www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk
Note to editors: The Henry Moore Institute is a centre dedicated to the study of sculpture and is located in the heart of Leeds. Its programming comprises
three integrated elements dedicated to sculpture: collections, exhibitions and research. The Henry Moore Institute is part of The Henry Moore Foundation.
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