Townley Hadrian

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Bust of Hadrian
MediumMarble sculpture
SubjectHadrian
LocationBritish Museum, London, United Kingdom

A bust of

Peregrine Edward Towneley at a reduced price to the British Museum in 1805. Unlike most busts of Hadrian and other emperors, it shows him in heroic nudity.[1] The bust was found in Rome and is carved from Greek marble.[2]

Description and history

The Townley bust is comparable with a bronze head of Hadrian in the

corona civica after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.[3]

The Townley bust, like other genuine statues of Hadrian, portrays his distinctively creased earlobes. It has been suggested from these that Hadrian suffered from, and eventually died from, coronary artery disease.[4][5]

Charles Townley acquired the bust for £105 in March 1795 from Barwell Brown, the son of the

antiquary and art dealer Lyde Browne, together with a veiled statue head of Adonis. He paid £168 for the pair, including transport from Livorno, in March the following year, as well as £8/6 (5%) interest on the delay.[1] Townley annotated his copy of the work of Ennio Quirino Visconti listing the portraits of Hadrian, indicating that he was in possession of this example.[1]

At the British Museum's exhibition on Hadrian: Empire and Conflict in 2008, the bust was included in one of two galleries of busts representing distinct phases in Hadrian's life, one earlier and dominated by the women of the

Plotina.[6] Trajan and Hadrian were provincial Romans from Italica in Hispania Baetica on the Iberian Peninsula.[6] The exhibition layout alluded to the rumour that Plotina had arranged Hadrian's rise to power.[6]

The bust has since been displayed alongside a bust of Antinous, Hadrian's lover from Bithynia, an arrangement commented on by Janina Ramirez in the 2020 BBC Four documentary Museums in Quarantine.[7] Unlike Hadrian, sculptures of Antinous are more often than not nude.

Exhibition history

The bust displayed with a bust of Antinous in the British Museum, 2015
The bust next to one of his second cousin and mother-in-law Salonia Matidia in the British Museum, 2013

Following is an overview of the work's exhibition history:[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Museum number 1805,0703.94". British Museum. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  2. ^ Treasures of the World's Cultures exhibition information on the bust
  3. ^
    ISSN 0068-113X
    .
  4. ISSN 0140-0460
    . Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  5. S2CID 33084298
    .
  6. ^
    S2CID 192991935
    .
  7. ^ Ramirez, Janina (30 April 2020), Museums in Quarantine – Series 1:4 – British Museum, BBC, retrieved 2020-10-13

External links

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