Portrait of Antinous as Dionysus

The portrait head of this sculpture originates from an original sculpture type depicting Antinous as the Roman god of Wine, Dionysus, as identified as his crown of a wreath of ivy. The rest of the bust is a modern addition to which the head is fixed to. The full figure version can be found at The Vatican (Sala Rotonda 540) and was originally draped in bronze.
The work originates from The Townley Collection, one of the earliest works to arrive at The British Museum. Townley notes that the sculpture is “A head, larger than life, of Antinous, Deified in the character of Bacchus, being crowned with a weath of ivy” – this has been considered the accepted identity though there is no exact confirmation of this.
The original marble was found in Janiculine Hill (Rome), in 1770, alongisde fragments of the rest of the statue built into a wall on the Janiculine Hill.