Pasquino Bust
- Title:
- Pasquino Bust
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
first half of the 2nd c. CE (Roman copy)
ca. 240-100 BCE (Hellenistic original)
2009 (image)
- Site:
- Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, Italy (discovery site) (original)
- Location:
- Warehouse
Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, Italy (discovery site) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0415
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 321
321 (sticker in front in old black numbers)
415 - File Name:
- CCC_0415.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 86 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Roman, after Hellenistic
- Style/Period:
- Roman Imperial, after Hellenistic (Pergamene School?)
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Menelaus (Greek mythology)
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 86 (maximum) 48 (maximum) (centimeters, height x width)
socle: 23 (centimeters, width) - Description:
- This is a cast of a bust of one of the members of the Pasquino Group that is housed in the Vatican. The figure here is commonly identified as Menelaos. The original from which the cast comes was produced as a bust and was discovered at Hadrian's villa at Tivoli. Menelaus twists his head to his right and cranes his neck to look up with an expression of concern and anguish. His wavy, midlength hair appears windswept, his beard is full and curly. His eyes are large and almond-shaped, his brow is furrowed, and his nose is prominent and flat-bridged. The hero wears an elaborately decorated crested helmet that he has pushed back above his forehead. The bust sits on a molded base and includes the figure's upper chest, cut away before the shoulders. A baldric crosses the chest from his right side and a garment drapes at his left side. The cast is generally complete but damaged at the head and neck, and is extensively chipped along the front of the helmet, at the lower base, and along the edges of the bust. The statue group, which exists in several copies, is known as the Pasquino Group, or simply as Pasquino, and is named after a partially preserved copy of the group in Rome. The figures were variously identified early on. Broad support for the identification of their Hellenistic prototype as Menelaos supporting the body of Patroklos came at the end of the 18th c., but that identification is still not entirely secure. The group was recast as Odysseus supporting the dead body of Achilles in the grotto at Sperlonga.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
Museo Pio Clementino no. 694 - Bibliography:
- Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 291-296
- Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Rome, Vatican Museums (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.