NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bust of Emperor Antoninus Pius
Marble portrait of the emperor Antoninus Pius
Roman, Antonine period, A.D. 138-161
Antoninus Pius (r. 138–61 A.D.), originally from southern Gaul, was the first of the Antonines, an adoptive dynasty that reflected the connections between wealthy provincial and Italian families. He was adopted by Hadrian as his successor when he was already fifty-one years old. His portraits thus represent him as a mature man in a sober but refined style that consciously echoes the imperial imagery adopted by Hadrian. At the beginning of his reign, he had to impel a reluctant Senate to award Hadrian divine honors, and it is probably for this reason that he himself was given the title of Pius. Unlike his two immediate predecessors, Trajan and Hadrian, Antoninus did not embark on any major wars or travel widely through the Empire. Indeed, he was in effect the last emperor to spend most of his reign in the city of Rome itself. Regarded as a just and diligent administrator, Antoninus presided over the Empire at the height of its power--a time that the historian Edward Gibbon later famously referred to as the period when "the condition of the human race was most happy and most prosperous."
Many statues and portraits of Antoninus and his wife Faustina were produced in Rome and the provinces. In appearance, Antoninus followed the style made fashionable by Hadrian (r. 117–38 A.D.) (08.170.118; 08.170.120; 99.35.177)—a thick, curly beard and a frame of hair around the face—thus emphasizing a constructed familial connection to his predecessor and adoptive father.
In this marble portrait that was once part of a statue, the face of Antoninus assumes a meditative expression imparted mostly by upturned eyes and a prominent brow that overshadows the heavy lids. The contemplative pose is appropriate for Antoninus, a man who quietly furthered the centralization of government. Working with a coterie of legal experts, he made noteworthy revisions to Roman law, including the ruling that a man must be considered innocent until proven guilty.
The emotive quality of this portrait foreshadows a stylistic trend that reached its fullest development during the reign of Caracalla (r. 211–17 A.D.) (40.11.1a), whose portraits reflected a level of psychological expression previously unknown in Roman portraiture, and set a standard that greatly influenced the portrait styles of later emperors.
Fletcher Fund, 1933 (33.11.3)
**
The April 20, 2007 unveiling of the 30,000 square foot Greek and Roman Galleries concluded a 15-year project and returned thousands of works from the Museum’s permanent collection to public view. Over 5,300 objects, created between about 900 B.C. and the early fourth century A.D., are displayed, tracing the parallel stories of the evolution of Greek art in the Hellenistic period and the arts of southern Italy and Etruria and culminating in the rich and varied world of the Roman Empire from from the Late Republican period and the Golden Age of Augustus’s Principate to the conversion of Constantine the Great in A.D. 312. The centerpiece of the new installation is the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, a monumental, peristyle cour court with a soaring two-story atrium that links the various galleries and themes.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.
In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.
National Historic Register #86003556
NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bust of Emperor Antoninus Pius
Marble portrait of the emperor Antoninus Pius
Roman, Antonine period, A.D. 138-161
Antoninus Pius (r. 138–61 A.D.), originally from southern Gaul, was the first of the Antonines, an adoptive dynasty that reflected the connections between wealthy provincial and Italian families. He was adopted by Hadrian as his successor when he was already fifty-one years old. His portraits thus represent him as a mature man in a sober but refined style that consciously echoes the imperial imagery adopted by Hadrian. At the beginning of his reign, he had to impel a reluctant Senate to award Hadrian divine honors, and it is probably for this reason that he himself was given the title of Pius. Unlike his two immediate predecessors, Trajan and Hadrian, Antoninus did not embark on any major wars or travel widely through the Empire. Indeed, he was in effect the last emperor to spend most of his reign in the city of Rome itself. Regarded as a just and diligent administrator, Antoninus presided over the Empire at the height of its power--a time that the historian Edward Gibbon later famously referred to as the period when "the condition of the human race was most happy and most prosperous."
Many statues and portraits of Antoninus and his wife Faustina were produced in Rome and the provinces. In appearance, Antoninus followed the style made fashionable by Hadrian (r. 117–38 A.D.) (08.170.118; 08.170.120; 99.35.177)—a thick, curly beard and a frame of hair around the face—thus emphasizing a constructed familial connection to his predecessor and adoptive father.
In this marble portrait that was once part of a statue, the face of Antoninus assumes a meditative expression imparted mostly by upturned eyes and a prominent brow that overshadows the heavy lids. The contemplative pose is appropriate for Antoninus, a man who quietly furthered the centralization of government. Working with a coterie of legal experts, he made noteworthy revisions to Roman law, including the ruling that a man must be considered innocent until proven guilty.
The emotive quality of this portrait foreshadows a stylistic trend that reached its fullest development during the reign of Caracalla (r. 211–17 A.D.) (40.11.1a), whose portraits reflected a level of psychological expression previously unknown in Roman portraiture, and set a standard that greatly influenced the portrait styles of later emperors.
Fletcher Fund, 1933 (33.11.3)
**
The April 20, 2007 unveiling of the 30,000 square foot Greek and Roman Galleries concluded a 15-year project and returned thousands of works from the Museum’s permanent collection to public view. Over 5,300 objects, created between about 900 B.C. and the early fourth century A.D., are displayed, tracing the parallel stories of the evolution of Greek art in the Hellenistic period and the arts of southern Italy and Etruria and culminating in the rich and varied world of the Roman Empire from from the Late Republican period and the Golden Age of Augustus’s Principate to the conversion of Constantine the Great in A.D. 312. The centerpiece of the new installation is the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, a monumental, peristyle cour court with a soaring two-story atrium that links the various galleries and themes.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.
In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.
National Historic Register #86003556