Colossal Statue of Dionysus

Roman art

This colossal statue portrays a young Dionysus/Bacchus. The nude, standing figure puts his weight on his right leg. Although the head is not ancient, it was inspired by ancient heads of Dionysus with a similar hairstyle. The current iconography dates to the sculpture’s restoration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, during which the figure’s right arm was pointed upward, holding aloft a bunch of grapes, in contrast to the original pose, in which it was bent at a right angle over the head, in a resting pose typical of the Lycean Apollo by Praxiteles, which was also widely used to represent the drunken Dionysus. Traces of a support behind the left shoulder and the left hip, heavily abraded and covered with plaster, reveal that the sculpture was part of a group, which probably included a satyr or other figures from Dionysus’s entourage.

Previously in the collection of Lelio Ceoli, this statue was brought, with others, to Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio in 1607. It was later moved to the Villa di Porta Pinciana and installed in front of the back facade, where it remained until the end of the eighteenth century, when it was moved to the garden of the lake. When the new collection was installed in 1827, the Dionysus was set in the niche in the Salone where it is still on view today.

Object details

Commentary

Formerly in the Ceoli Collection, this sculpture was purchased in 1607 by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, along with others belonging to Lelio Ceoli displayed in the palazzo designed by Sangallo in via Giulia. Initially installed in the family residence in Campo Marzio, it was moved, probably in 1616, to the Villa di Porta Pinciana, where it was placed in front of the back facade. At the end of the eighteenth century, it was moved to the garden of the lake, where it remained until 1826, when the new collection was installed in the Casino, which had been stripped by the massive sale of works to Napoleon Bonaparte. At this point, the sculpture was heavily restored. As we read in the archival notes, the previous restoration work, attested in drawings by Andrea Boscoli and Philippe Thomassin (De Lachenal 1982, figs. 2; 9), was found to be unacceptable. The nineteenth-century restoration, carried out by Massimiliano Francesco Laboureur and Antonio D’Este, changed the iconography established by the previous one, replacing the thyrsus with a bunch of grapes. In January 1827, the colossal statue was installed in a niche in the Salone as a pendant to the Fighting Satyr, which had also been in the Ceoli Collection.

The statue depicts a young Dionysus/Bacchus, god of drunkenness. The standing nude figure is shown in a sinuous pose, placing his weight on his right leg, while his left leg is advanced, the left foot resting on a raised surface. The statue is bolstered by two supports: the one on the right is a trunk wrapped in grape vines, while the one on the left is entirely covered with drapery. While the head is not ancient, it was inspired by ancient heads of Dionysus with a similar hairstyle. The head is slightly turned to the left and the long hair is worn loose over the shoulders and held by a band or a diadem decorated with ivy, grape leaves and corymbs that conceal the ears, in a way typical of the classical sculpture of the early Imperial period. The current iconography, which is the result, as noted, of restoration work in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, presents the figure with his right arm pointed up, holding aloft a bunch of grapes (which had replaced a thyrsus). These modifications obscure the original iconography of the figure. As observed by Nibby, the arm was originally bent at a right angle over the head in a resting post typical of the Lycean Apollo by Praxiteles, which was leaning against a column topped with a tripod, holding a bow in his left hand and resting his right arm on top of his head.

Starting in the fourth century BCE, this pose was also used to indicate the drunken Dionysus, mainly in clay groups and the minor arts, but also in statuary, in which the identity of the god in confirmed by his attributes, including the grape vines on the trunk and the bowl held in the left hand; the figure was generally nude, or wearing a pardalis draped over his chest.  Although there are many examples in which the god is alone and standing in this same pose (for example, the Dionysus in the Mattei Collection in Palazzo Altemps, MNR inv. 420802), he is more frequently part of a group that includes a satyr or other figures from the Dionysian thiasos (Gasparri 1986, p. 450, nos 278–280). The Borghese sculpture was part of one such group, as attested by circular traces of a support behind the left shoulder and left hip, which are heavily abraded and covered with plaster. The other component of the sculpture group, a satyr, was replaced by the trunk when the sculpture was restored (Moreno, Viacava 2003).

Numerous examples, similar overall but with some variation in the placement of the figures and pose, attest to the popularity of this group, for which there were two distinct iconographic formulas: one in which a drunken Dionysus abandons himself sensually on the shoulder of the satyr, and one in which Dionysus is just resting his arm on the other figure. The Borghese Dionysus belongs to the latter group, other examples of which include one in the Vatican Museum (Museo Chiaramonti, inv. 588; Pochmarski 1990, p. 324, P27), one in Venice (Museo Archeologico, inv. 119; Traversari 1982) and the Ludovisi group in Rome (MNR, inv. 8606, M. De Angelis D’Ossat 2012, pp. 138–139). The Ludovisi Dionysus is particularly similar to the present sculpture, sharing its colossal size and lithe, feminine form.

Most scholars see components of works from the fourth century BCE in these sculptures (Pochmarski 1990, pp. 196–324), without, however, agreeing on the original model, which some argue can be traced to Praxiteles and others to Thymilos. The vast number of known examples, within which we find important typological variants, has led some scholars to imagine that the original was a painting, while others think that it was an eclectic creation of Roman art, resulting from the reworking of forms and styles from different periods (Capaldi 2009, p. 136).

Dionysus/Bacchus, a divine image of youthful beauty and benefactor of humanity for his gifts of grapes and wine, was often used in the Roman period for decorative sculpture and widely found in private villas and public baths. The Borghese example might have been made for the latter context, considering its colossal size, which suggests it was made for a large display space. Iconographic and stylistic analysis allow us to date the sculpture to the middle of the Imperial period, in particular the Antonine age.

Jessica Clementi