Immediately after finishing the Antinous Mosaic, I got to work on its partner, the Hadrian Mosaic. I had always conceived of this project as a pair of mosaics, where the drama of the twin pieces of art that face each other would be enhanced by the power of their story as lovers.

My starting point was the picture at right, which is a photograph of one of the many sculptures of Hadrian. Alas, even after increasing the contrast levels on the digital image, I still wasn’t able to get the same tonal values as the Antinous piece. (But I was still pretty fresh on my Adobe learning curve, and could probably do a much better job today ­ almost 3 years later!). My prep process was identical to that used for Antinous.

The Hadrian piece (and, by extension, the project) was finally completed in May ’07, and the result, I think, is quite agreeable:

Hadrian. Glass tile on wood. 3' x 3'. Click on the picture for a much larger resolution graphic.

I also snapped a photo of the pair of pieces as they’ve been mounted on my living room wall. I daresay it’s quite a dramatic set-up, rendered all the more so when one actually knows the details of their love story:

If you don’t happen to know the details of their love story, and would like to, I invite you to check out The Sacred Antinous, my ongoing erotic historical fiction site!