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Emperor’s vision

Andrew Lambirth

Wednesday, 30th July 2008

Hadrian: Empire and Conflict
The British Museum, until 26 October
Sponsored by BP

Architecture is one of the exhibition’s major themes. Under the centre of Smirke’s dome has been placed a cut-away model of the Pantheon that Hadrian built, or rather rebuilt after Agrippa’s first version. In this section we have four richly carved marble pilaster capitals from the interior, removed during a redesign in 1747, and a lovely frieze block with a dolphin and four fantastic sea creatures in relief. There’s also a bust of Agrippa, looking most odd in a headdress. The wall text does not explain this, but by referring back to an earlier statue of Hadrian, with his toga draped over his head indicating that he was officiating as a priest in the midst of a ritual sacrifice, one might deduce that Agrippa was up to something similar. But shouldn’t we be told what?

At this point, the architecture section moves smoothly into Hadrian’s Villa, with an exquisite faun in red marble, bearing a shepherd’s crook, pan pipes and grapes, a beautiful piece of sculpture looking as though made of beaten leather. An extensive model and landscape lay-out of the villa at Tivoli takes up much space here. For those who find such models uninspiring, there’s a case of fresco fragments, marble veneers and stucco ceiling fragments, and a superb relief ‘Boy with Horse’ from the BM’s own collection, carved ‘in the time of Hadrian’. There are other sculptures, a length of lead water pipe and rectangular pillars to give some small idea of the villa’s staggering magnificence. The section devoted to Antinous, Hadrian’s male lover, is actually far more spectacular, with a vast marble head of this beautiful youth and various statues of him in other guises — as Osiris, Dionysus or Aristaios. Antinous died in mysterious circumstances and he rather outshines Hadrian’s wife, Sabina, or the Emperor’s mausoleum, though this final area of the display is graced with two marvellous gilded bronze peacocks.