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Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus
Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus

Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus

9411

Ca. 1st Century AD.

A headless boy standing with weight on his proper left leg, right one slightly flexed and trailing behind. The figure is nude except for a long goatskin draped over his shoulders and enveloping his entire back down to the level of the knees. At the front the animal skin is laden with grapes and vine leaves. the boy clutches the bunch of fruit against his torso. The tree trunk support along the figure’s left leg is embellished with a snake curving up and down the front. At the back of the statue the smooth animal skin terminates in a careful rendered goats head and hoof, - an unexpected calligraphic detail that was presumably hardly visible in the sculptures original setting in antiquity.

A number of Graeco-Roman mythological characters are shown carrying all kinds of fruit, symbol of the harvest and of abundance. Older bearded males thus represented are usually identified as Sylvanus (the Roman god of woods and uncultivated lands), whereas the youthful bearded ones are often referred to as personifications of the Seasons. However our figure is not one of the Seasons; the presence of grapes, an animal skin as well as a snake clearly point to the god of wine, Dionysos, the Romans Bacchus.

There is in fact a strong iconographical tradition from the Hellenistic period onwards of an Infant or Youthful Dionysos/Bacchus carrying grapes within his animal-skin garment. The exact origin of this particular motif has not been identified with any degree of certainty. It could have been a famous monument, a painting or a sculpture, for instance.

The statue is set on an integral oval base. It has been mended from two piece at the knees with an iron with restoration over the break line and weathered surface patina.

Size 29½ in (74.3cm) high.

Provenance: London Art market 2010, acquired by the previous owner in Buenos Aires in the early 1970s.

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