Dionysian Relief

Roman art

This relief, which was part of either a statue base or a frieze and is inserted in a modern frame, depicts two scenes of nymphs, attacked by, respectively, a satyr and a silenus. In the first, the young woman is standing and trying to control her chiton while fending off the attack of the young satyr with her left hand. The satyr is semi-reclined on a rocky spur to his right. In the second, the nymph is also standing and in this case holds a torch in her right hand, which she uses to fight the old but vigorous silenus. The latter is nude with the exception of an animal skin wrapped around his left arm, and he holds up a club in his raised left hand. The relief was well known starting from at least the end of the fifteenth century, as documented in numerous drawings made between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and various copies and depictions. At the end of the seventeenth century, it was used to decorate the central fountain in the garden of the Palazzo in Campo Marzio, and then it was moved to the grounds of the Villa di Porta Pinciana, after which it was restored and put on display in the Casino in 1826. Initially displayed in Room VIII, it was moved to its current location some time before 1893.

Object details

Commentary

This relief was well known at the end of the fifteenth century and continued to catch the interest of artists, as documented by numerous drawings made between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. These drawings also provide important information for reconstructing the original iconography, prior to the nineteenth-century reassembly (Pray Bober, Rubinstein 1986). The monument’s original location is unknown, but scholars agree that, considering their uninterrupted popularity in the Renaissance, the reliefs were by that point in an easily accessible public space, possibly a church.

At the end of the seventeenth century, the relief was used to decorate the central fountain on the grounds of the Palazzo in Campo Marzio, serving as a base for a colossal statue of a satyr hosted in the central niche, as documented by an engraving made by Venturini in the second half of the seventeenth century (Falda 1691, pl. 11). The reliefs were later moved to the grounds of the Villa di Porta Pinciana, where they remained until 1826 and the installation of the new collection in the Casino, which had been stripped by the massive sale to Napoleon Bonaparte. At that time, Evasio Gozzani arranged for them to be restored by Massimiliano Laboureur or Antonio D’Este. Initially displayed in Room VIII, this relief was moved to Room II some time before 1893, probably in 1888 (Moreno, Viacava 2003).

Inserted in a modern frame, the relief depicts two scenes of nymphs attacked by, respectively, a satyr and a silenus. In the first, the young woman is standing and trying to control her chiton while fending off the attack of the young satyr with her left hand. The satyr is semi-reclined on a rocky spur to his right and his upper legs are covered with a pardalis. In the second, the nymph is also standing and in this case holds a torch in her right hand, which she uses to fight off the old but vigorous silenus. The latter is nude with the exception of an animal skin wrapped around his left arm. He holds up a club in his raised left hand and grasps the hem of the nymph’s chiton with his right.

The relief, along with others in the Salone (XXXVI; VIIIL; XLIX), was part of a single monument, reconstructed by Christian Hülsen as a rectangular base measuring 220 cm x 80 cm x 60 cm (Hülsen 1913). It would have formed one of the long sides of the base, along with XLIX. The base might have been used to support a statue of Dionysus.  Other scholars argue instead that the reliefs formed continuous frieze, measuring seven metres long (Herdejürgen 1997).

The connection between nymphs and sileni, both embodiments of the rural, mountain setting and a free, wild way of expressing sexual impulses and forms of seduction, was already vividly illustrated in Attic pottery from the Archaic period. During the Classical period, the young women’s behaviour towards sileni began to gradually change, becoming more reluctant and openly resistant. The sileni were now violently rejected. Thus associated with the maenads, initiates of Dionysus’s entourage, the nymphs became part of the Bacchic world (De Francesco, Giacobello, Lambrugo 2009). The subject of sexual aggression was common on Attic pottery and was often used on gems, reliefs and sculpture in the round in the Hellenistic and Roman periods (Halm-Tisserant, Siebert 1997). The female figure on the left of the Borghese relief is similar to a figure on a relief from Rome and now in the British Museum, that was carved in the Imperial period and inspired by late-Hellenistic models (Smith 1904, no. 2202).

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the Dionysian thiasos, with its numerous symbolic elements and natural setting, was especially popular and found on various supports, quickly becoming a genre subject, its erotic tone alluding to the earthly pleasures provided by Dionysus. Scholars agree that the Borghese relief dates to the first half of the first century BCE, based on stylistic analysis of the fine modelling of the bodies.

Jessica Clementi