Copies of famoust Antinous-Sculptures

Castor and Pollux


Potsdam – Parc of Sanssouci, near Charlottenhof castle. This marble group is attributed to Francesco Menghi. It first stood along the grove near the hippodrome and, since 1885, is at its present location. The last picture shows the damages endured recently by the statue.

London – Victoria & Albert Museum. The copy was executed by Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) in Rom and signed in 1767. Soon after its completion, it was sent to Shughborough Hall (Staffordshire, UK) and stood there until 1842. Then, after changing hands a few times, the group reached the V&A Museum in 1940, where it is today exhibited in Room 50 under Inv. Nr. A.59-1940.

Versailles – Gardens. Antoine Coysevox worked slowly on this marble copy between 1687 and 1706, and signed it only in 1712. First exhibited in the palace later called Musée du Louvre, it was then, in 1712, placed in the gardens of Versailles where it is still today. «Les guides font remarquer la beauté des adolescents nus et couronnés de fleurs » (Pierre de Nolhac, 1913)

Sceaux (Hauts-de-Seine, France) – Gardens of the castle. This is an early and rather free interpretation of the Ildefonso group, probably based on an etching or drawing. 2.5 m high, it is also considerably larger than the original. This group goes back to the first half of the 17th century, is carved in stone and its back has never been completely finished. The group shows today severe degradations.

Berlin - Charlottenburg. Bronze by Christoph Heinrich Fischer [ ? - 1868], founder active in Berlin in the first half of the 19th century. Created in 1833, this bronze belongs to the decoration of the gardens since then. Restored in 1998.

Berlin - Glienicke Castle. Bronze copy of 1828 on top of a fountain, set-up inspired by the one of Weimar. Now in the inner court of the castle.

Bad Freienwalde - Iron copy manufactured in 1795 by the foundry of Lauchhammer. Probably copied from the plaster cast figuring in the casts collection assembled by the painter Anton Rafael Mengs [1728-1779] and donated to the Albertinum of Dresden in 1785. The group was previously inside the castle, used to decorate a chimney-piece. It now stands in the gardens, in front of the castle.

Weimar - Iron copy manufactured by the foundry of Lauchhammer (see our entry Bad Freienwalde). Displayed from 1796 near the HOLZHALLE of the Red Castle (Rotes Schloß). In 1824, the architect Clemens Wenzel Coudray [1775-1845] had it moved and set on a fountain in front of the Red Castle (Burgplatz), where it still stands today after having been restored in 1994/95.

Weimar – Goethe’s House. One of the copies in Weimar is a plaster cast, acquired in 1812 by Goethe himself, and which is now on the landing of the first floor. Goethe wrote about this group : "Diese beyden Epheben waren mir immer höchst angenehm" (Goethe, 10.11.1812, letter to Heinrich Meyer)

Naples, Riviera di Chiaia, Parco della Villa Comunale: Fontana de Castore e Polluce. The park was created in 1778-1780 by order of king Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies as a "Public Promenade", then only accessible to a select few. Among the statues decorating the park, this marble copy of the Ildefonso Group, a work of Tomasso Solari, done in 1764 originally for the Reggia di Caserta, faces the Stazione Zoologica di Napoli (SZN).

St. Petersburg, Hermitage. In the late 18th century, the Empress of Russia, Catherine II (1729-1796) entrusted the Roman sculptor Carlo Albacini (1777-1859), with the creation of this marble copy, now exhibited in the Hermitage Museum.


Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia), Sala de la Verdad. This plaster copy, by Giuseppe Pagniucci in 1792, now stands in the same location and on the same Baroque base once occupied by the original sculptural group until its transfer to the Prado Museum in 1828.


Private collection Othmar Rahm. Stained glass created in 1995 by Wolfram Ames.

Dresden, Porzellansammlung, Inv. N° PE 434. Biscuit, ca. 35 cm high. Christian Gottfried Jüchtzer [1752-1812] produced several exemplars of “Castor and Pollux” during his career in Meißen. Exhibited in the Japanisches Palais in the 19th century, today in the Zwinger

Berlin – Kunstgewerbemuseum, Room V. Porcelain designed by Christian Gottfried Jüchtzer, ca. 1790, about 35 cm high.

London, British Museum, Inv. N° MME 2001, 3-4, 1. Meissen porcelain by Christian Gottfried Jüchtzer, dated 1788-89, acquired in 2001. Exhibited in Room 47, Showcase 1.
Antinous-Agathodaimon

Copy of the Antinous-Agathodaimon in Potsdam Sanssouci.
SK 510

Copy of Inv. No. Sk 510, (Pergamon Museum,Berlin) in Potsdam Sanssouci
Copy of the Antinous Farnese

Rome, Palazzo Farnese, Carracci Gallery. On one side of the entrance door stands a copy of the famous Antinous-Farnese, in the place occupied by the original statue before it was taken to Naples to the Royal Borbonic Museum (Reale Museo Borbonico), now National Archaeological Museum. The 18th century's statuary decoration has been recreated in the years 1970's by casts of the original marbles which once adorned the premises

Moscow', Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Bust of Antinous after the Neapolitan Antinoo-Farnesio.


Berlin, private collection. Bronze Copy of the head of the Farnese Antinous, 20 cm high. Exhibited in Berlin, 2004.

Copy of the Antinous of Delphi

Vincennes (France), castle. Copy of the Antinous of Delphi set against the southern surrounding wall of the castle. Plaster casts of the major discoveries made in Delphi during the 1892-1897 excavations were exhibited in Paris until the years 1920, Antinous being one of the most famous among them, on a par with the Auriga. Several copies of Antinous must have been made at that time. This replica reproduces scrupulously the fractures at the knees of the original statue, but the additional fractures at the top of the thighs result from a mishandling.
Copy of the Antinous Albani

Berlin, Deutsches Historisches Museum, GOS-Nr. KG000439, bronze medaillon of Antinous, 34,4 cm (diameter), manufactured in the mid-19th century by the founder Ferdinand Berbedienne. Not on exhibit. This medaillon, which represents the head of the Albani relief, stood on Barbedienne's catalogue until the beginning of the 20th century, in various sizes.


Berlin, Antikensammlung. Copy of the Grimani Antinous, exhibited in the Pergamon Museum of Berlin in 2005 to replace the original, itself exhibited at the same time in Japan.