L’ICONOGRAFIA DELL’ADRIANO TIPO ΔΟ TRA RINASCIMENTO E BAROCCO: IDENTITÀ MULTIPLE, MODELLI INCROCIATI, ORIGINALI RITROVATI

Since the early Renaissance, a portrait type has enjoyed particular fortune, so much so that it has been copied countless times in both marble and bronze. The figure, which had been identified under various names in the modern Caesars' Galleries, was recognised as the Emperor Hadrian on the basis of comparisons with monetary images. One aspect that has remained uncertain has been the identification of the ancient prototype or prototypes from which the numerous modern copies and re-elaborations would have sprung. The re-examination of antiquarian sources, graphic documents and collectors' histories suggests that the origin of the modern series may have been two portraits that belonged to the collection of Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and to that of Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, which are now in the Prado Museum in Madrid and in the Museum of the University of Missouri Columbia, respectively. A third example that appeared in a London auction catalogue also shows some similarity with 17th-century evidence.