- Museum number
- 1805,0703.94
- Description
-
Marble bust of the Emperor Hadrian shown naked.
- Production date
- 117-138 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 79 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Type 'Rollockenfrisur'
-
Opper 2008
Wegner (1956), pp. 15, 69, 101; Fittschen & Zanker (1983), pp. 50-51; Wegner (1984), p. 123; Evers (1994), no. 60.
-
Cook 2013, nr. 296:
Townley's description; ‘A Bust of Hadrian larger than life with the Breast naked, formerly in the Villa Montalto, belonging to Pope Sixtus the Fifth’ (1804 Parlour Catalogue, park drawing room 8). The former location is recorded also in Parlour Catalogue owned by Simon Townley and TY 14/4/50, Townley’s annotated copy of Visconti’s list of portraits of Hadrian, noting that the one recorded as in the Villa Montalto was now his.
Purchased from Barwell Browne in March 1795 for £105 (Wigan Accounts), the amount recorded in the addenda to TY 10/6 as £126, i.e. with the charges for transport and duty for both pieces included.
On 17 March 1796, Townley paid Barwell Browne, the son of Lyde Browne, £168 for a bust of Hadrian (1805,0703.94) and a ‘head of Adonis veiled’ (1805,0703.78), including £21 for carriage and duty from Leghorn. He also paid £8.8s. as a year’s interest (at 5%) on that amount from the previous March (Wigan Accounts).
Date:
late Hadrianic (Bracker); ca. AD 140 (museum label).
Drawings:
* Townley drawing 2010,5006.150.
Bibliography:
- Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum (1808), IV.15;
- Ancient Marbles of the British Museum, III, pl. 15;
- A Guide to the Graeco-Roman Sculptures in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2 vols. (London, 1874 [1892] and 1876), I, no. 18;
- A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol. III (London 1904), 158, no. 1897;
- M. Wegner, Hadrian, Plotina, Marciana, Matidia, Sabina. Das römische Herrscherbild II.3 (Berlin, 1956), 101 (bibl.);
- J. Bracker, Antike Plastik 8 (1968), 77, figs. 9-10.
- Location
- On display (G70)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2005, 11 Apr-10 Jul, Seoul Arts Centre, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2005, 25 Jul-8 Oct, Busan Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2005, 27 Oct-2006 31 Jan, Haengso Museum, Keimyung University, Daegu, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2006, 18 Mar-4 Jun, Beijing, Capital Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2007, 3 Feb-27 May, Taipei, National Palace Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2007,14 Sep-2 Dec, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2008, 24 Jul-26 Aug, London, BM, 'Hadrian: Empire and Conflict'
- Acquisition date
- 1805
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1805,0703.94
