Dionysian Relief

Roman art

This relief, inserted in a modern frame, was originally part of a statue base or a larger relief. It is divided into two different groups. On the left, a satyr is sitting on a rock playing the pan pipes and another satyr, looking left, is holding up a cymbal in his left hand. On the right, the scene continues with preparations for the ritual cleansing of the statue of the cult of Dionysus. While a young satyr, his left foot resting on an altar, is pouring water into a basin, a semi-nude Maenad or Nymph with a mantle draped over her left shoulder is about to immerse a sponge in the basin, while lightly touching the forehead of the statue of the cult of Dionysus, rendered with archaising features, with her left hand. The relief was well known starting from at least the end of the fifteenth century, as documented by 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.

Object details

Commentary

This relief, the provenance and original location of which are unknown, was probably on view in an easily accessible public place starting in the fifteenth century, possibly a church, considering its popularity in the Renaissance, as attested by drawings, copies and depictions of it (Pray Bober, Rubinstein 1986). It is possible that the relief decorated the central fountain in the garden of the Palazzo in Campo Marzio between the end of the seventeenth century and 1819, specifically the part of the fountain on the right that was not included in the engraving by Venturini, which did, however, document other reliefs that were, as we will see, part of the same monument (Falda 1691, pl. 11). The presence of the relief in the garden was in fact documented by Georg Zoëga (Herdejürgen 1997, note 36).

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 it to be restored by Massimiliano Laboureur or Antonio D’Este.

The present panel, inserted in a modern frame, might have been part of a statue base, reconstructed by Christian Hülsen as a rectangular base measuring 220 cm x 80 cm x 60 cm (Hülsen 1913), that also included the panels in the Salone, inv. XXXVI, XLIX and in Room II, inv. IIIC. Other scholars argue instead that it was a continuous frieze, measuring 7 metres (Herdejürgen 1997). The relief needs to be read in continuity with the panel with a satyr and an Eros riding a goat on the left side of inv. XXXVI in the Salone. The numerous drawings made as early as the fifteenth century are fundamental for reconstructing the original iconography of the work (Pray Bober, Rubinstein 1986).

The panel is divided in two groups. Starting from the left, a satyr is sitting on a rock playing the pan pipes, while another one, facing left, is holding a cymbal in his left hand. The image of a seated figure represented immersed in the space through the rotation of the torso and position of the legs is also found in the sculpture of a satyr in the Quirinale (Ghisellini 1993). What changes is the position of the arms, which are bent to hold the panpipes close to the mouth. Generally speaking, the scene seems to derive from works by Lysippos, such as the Resting Hermes or the Herakles Epitrapezios, assimilated and reworked in the Hellenistic period. On the right, the scene continues with preparations for the ritual cleansing of the statue of the cult of Dionysus. While a young satyr, his left foot resting on an altar, is pouring water into a basin, a semi-nude Maenad or Nymph with a mantle draped over her left shoulder is about to immerse a sponge in the basin, while lightly touching the forehead of the statue of the cult of Dionysus with her left hand. The statue is represented in profile and facing left, without a pedestal. The figure is bearded, and his hair falls freely down his back. The god is dressed in a long chiton and a mantle draped diagonally over his chest. He is holding a kantharos in his left hand and we know from the drawings that his right hand held the edge of a piece of fabric. Although in the outdoor setting of a Dionysian thiasus, a popular theme portrayed on various supports starting in the Hellenistic period, the scene of washing the agalma, the cult idol, evokes the purification ceremonies that were often a prelude to ritual sacrifice (Bettinetti 2001, pp. 143–160).

Based on stylistic analysis of the finely carved bodies and faces as well as the attention paid to describing the setting, the relief is universally agreed to date to the first half of the first century BCE, tracing back to a late-Hellenistic model inspired by late-Classical art.

Jessica Clementi