{"title":"Before Marble","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"before-marble-antinous-in-the-sculptors-studio","title":"Before Marble: Antinous in the Sculptor's Studio","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eA hardcover photographic novella — 80 pages\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eBefore he was marble, he was nineteen and unsure of himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eBefore Marble\u003c\/em\u003e imagines a single afternoon: the young Antinous, beloved companion of the emperor Hadrian, is unexpectedly summoned from an idle day at court to the studio of the imperial sculptor. He arrives flattered, certain the honor of being immortalized in stone will be a quick, dignified affair — until he's told he'll need to disrobe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eWhat follows is not a triumphant unveiling, but something far more human: nervous laughter, a hand pressed over a reddening face, the long, quiet work of an anxious boy learning to hold still under a stranger's unflinching eye. Through original narrative prose and a cinematic photographic sequence, the book traces his transformation across a single sitting — from startled protest to unguarded stillness — arriving, in its final unposed moment, at the exact tilt of the head the world would come to know for the next two thousand years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe book closes where history actually begins: a gallery of surviving busts and statues of Antinous, drawn from museums and archaeological sites across the ancient world, revealing just how completely that one afternoon's likeness outlived the empire that made it.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003ePart fiction, part history — \u003cem\u003eBefore Marble\u003c\/em\u003e is for anyone who has ever looked at an ancient bust and wondered who that face belonged to before it became a monument.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Prodigi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51039635046567,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0759\/1454\/3271\/files\/book_image1.jpg?v=1789408080"}],"url":"https:\/\/antinouslives.com\/collections\/before-marble.oembed","provider":"Antinous Lives","version":"1.0","type":"link"}