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All the heads of Antinous I am aware of are characteristically gazing downwards, as though regarding the onlooker from above.
The head in question has an upward tilt to the face and a slight upward gaze, not unlike the typical treatment of Alexander the Great, though I don't think it is meant to be him.
Martin
Fac me cocleario vomere!
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Urselius,
Have you read my post? What's the trouble to be interpeted as Emrita Augusta/ Genius locii?
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Quote:Urselius,
Have you read my post? What's the trouble to be interpeted as Emrita Augusta/ Genius locii?
Yes, I have no problem with the supposition that it is the local city's genius loci. However, it could also be other things as well, the Genius of Rome - sometimes rendered as female, the genius of a nearby river - the Romans were fond of the personification of rivers etc etc. I think the only thing that can be said with any degree of certainty is that it isn't the portrait of a real person.
Martin
Fac me cocleario vomere!
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Thinking about it all over, I still find a datation to the Augustan peroid very unlikely. It wouldn´t be very exceptional if statues would have been added later on to a temple. Especiall in regard of the other portraits from the same site (?), which are stylistically very different. I find the explanation of the city goddess very good it most certainly is a deity. BUT there are "portraits" in large numbers which are equally idealized. Usually portraits of high-status persona, local or imperial.
Alexander most certainly not. Wrong hairstyle, no? "Alexanderlocke" / "Zangenlocke" and all that?
Christian K.
No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
