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ANTINOUS AS HERMES? SHORT-HAIRED TYPES
CAPITOLINE ANTINOUS
It is ironic that two of the statues from antiquity that won earliest and widest acclaim as representing Antinous may not portray him after all. Since the nineteenth century the identities of the so-called Capitoline Antinous (shown right) and Antinous Belvedere (shown left) have been questioned. Opinion is still divided, but most now agree that the Antinous Belvedere (which has been known as Antinous since the mid-1500s) represents the messenger god Hermes and that the Capitoline Antinous portrays either Hermes or Antinous in his guise. Both figures have heads of tight curls, the shortest hairstyle in the Antinous range.
One of the reasons for connecting Antinous with Hermes was the freedom with which the messenger god travelled between the mortal world and the divine and his important role as psychopomp, escorting souls to the afterlife. In appearance Hermes was represented as handsome, beardless and boyish, essentially like Antinous.
Cameos based on the Capitoline Antinous traditionally show a rather graceful and distinctly youthful male portrait captured in three-quarter back view with slightly lowered head and the right shoulder coming forward.
The cameos below show the head raised to a more level position. They are not unlike the Matineian coin depicting a young Antinous with short (if not particularly curly) hair also shown. The Arcadian city of Mantineia became an important centre for the worship of Antinous, observing a festival and holding games in his honour. Coins were minted bearing his image, if not his name (it is the name of the Greek sponsor of the coinage, Verturius, that appears alongside his portrait in this and other Mantineian coins depicting Antinous).
CAPITOLINE ANTINOUS: LOOKALIKES AND AMBIGUOUS TYPES
As a cameo subject the Capitoline Antinous is sometimes confused with portraits of the youthful curly-haired Hercules without his usual beard and lion-pelt headdress. This profile is based on an ancient intaglio by the Greek gem engraver Gnaios. A fine cameo example of this Hercules type carved by Girometti is shown here from the British Museum.
The hero has squarer, heavier facial features somewhat reminiscent of a modern-day rugby player with a broken nose and a muscular neck. Some versions also include his club in the background.
Whether cameos such as this nineteenth century glass example can claim to represent Antinous is open to question. The heads and busts of idealized Grecian youths with short or close-cropped hair decorated cameos long before Antinous was born. Yet Antinous came to be widely regarded as a continuation and embodiment of that type. While we cannot know the intention of the artisan who made this particular cameo, the portrait lacks any special identifying features. It is best assumed to represent the "head of a youth, possibly Antinous" rather than the "head of Antinous".
CONCLUSION
Ultimately Hadrian’s devotion to Antinous immortalized him not as a god (at least, not for most of us), but as an iconic figure in art and in gay history. There is a portrait of one of the world’s greatest art historians, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, (who was himself homosexual), holding an engraving of the Albani bas-relief of Antinous--clearly a favourite work and one that enthralled a whole generation of Grand Tourists.
Along with other antique sculptures, the villa Albani relief formed the starting point for neo-classical cameo carvers to explore anew the nature of Antinous in their gems. Masters such as Marchant, Morelli, Girometti, the Pichlers and later the Saulinis led the field. Lesser known and many unknown carvers followed, some of whom created equally captivating shell cameos of Antinous well into the nineteenth century. 
Fresh examples come regularly to light but the sculptures that underlie them remain the same and must be our principal reference when it comes to identification. They hold the vital clues that help distinguish between cameos that truly represent Antinous (including those containing legitimate artistic variations) and cameos of male (as well as female) subjects that may show his influence but lack the decisive, if sometimes subtle, features and attitudes that set his image apart.
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