Antinous Natalie Nowotarski

Deified immediately upon his death by his lover Emperor Hadrian, the cult of Antinous spread the length and breadth of the Roman empire where its artists were compelled to placate the grief of their great patron in mourning by producing the most idealised symbols of youthful perfection conceivable in the lexicon of Greco-Roman sculptural art. So prolific was their work that Antinous would become one of the most easily identifiable figures in all of classical antiquity. Often conflated with the existing Olympian gods of Hermes and Dionysus, the cult image of Antinous would be instantly recognisable with his elaborately thick tousled curls and the sensuous but downcast melancholic gaze he would cast upon his worshippers.

In this image by Melboune-based photographer Natalie Nowotarski, she doesn’t simply record the preservation of an exceptionally exquisite piece from the second century CE, she enhances it, she accentuates the sombre expression of the semi-divine figure, using her camera to capture the intent of that anonymous sculptor almost two millennia ago. Light and shadow and cold grey stone combine in this image to create something tragic, something sorrowful, but forever beautiful.