Portrait Head of Emperor Hadrian
130-138
- Medium
- Marble
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 36 × 27.5 × 27.3 cm (14 1/4 × 10 7/8 × 10 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
- Credit line
- Katherine K. Adler Memorial Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This sculpture depicts Emperor Hadrian (reigned 117–38), identifiable by his luxurious curls and cropped beard. A portrait head embodied the emperor’s authority in his absence, with distinctive hairstyles and facial features that were instantly recognizable throughout the Roman Empire. Hadrian’s beard set him apart from his clean-shaven predecessors and set a trend for imperial portraits until the early 4th century.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
