Statue of Dionysus
The sculpture depicts a youthful, nude Dionysus/Bacchus, with slender and soft forms, standing on his right leg. The current iconography of the upper limbs is the result of a misunderstanding by the restorer, who made the right arm bent forward, holding a cup, and the left resting on a pillar. Originally, the right arm was down at the side and the left bent on a higher support; the head is also modern. The statue is one of the eclectic creations of the Roman workshops that drew on late-classical and Hellenistic models; in this case the reference type can be identified in the Dionysus of Woburn Abbey.
Displayed in the 17th century in one of the eight niches carved into the wall of the inner garden of the city palace of the Borghese family, in the late 18th century it was moved along with the other sculptures to the Villa Pinciana, first outside the door that led from the garden to Room VI, and later, with the restoration of the collection of antiquities and the new layout of the Villa after the sale of the works of ancient art to Napoleon Bonaparte, to Room IV, where it is still displayed today.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
Dimensions
height without plinth 157 cm; ancient part 58 cm
Provenance
Collezione Borghese (Inventory della primogenitura di Giovanni Battista Borghese, 1610, no. 6). Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, c, p. 50, no. 124. Purchased by the Italian State in 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 16th century, torso of Dionysus integrated with limbs, head, attributes.
- 1828 Francesco Massimiliano Laboureur
- 1995 CBC coop. a.r.l.
Commentary
The statue shows up in pendant with the Dionysus CXXXXIII (Room IV) in Perrier’s engravings of 1638; as documented in Venturini’s engraving of the second half of the 17th century, it was displayed in one of the eight niches carved in the wall of the inner garden of the city palace of the Borghese family decorated by Carlo Rainaldi. At the end of the 18th century, it was moved, along with the other sculptures, to the Villa Pinciana; a watercolour by Percier in Paris dated 1786-91 attests to its display, along with the aforementioned Dionysus, on the outer sides of the door – now closed – that led from the garden to Room VI. At the time that the sculpture was brought to the Palazzina, when the Borghese museum of Antiquities and the new layout of the villa were created, following the sale of works from the collection to Napoleon Bonaparte, the statue’s surfaces were mechanically cleaned, having deteriorated from prolonged exposure to the elements. It was placed in Room IV, inside a niche similar to the one in which it was displayed at the Palazzo Borghese.
The sculpture, with considerable later additions, depicts a youthful nude Dionysus/Bacchus, with slender and soft forms, standing on his right leg, with his left noticeably bent backward and resting on the front of his foot. While the repairs to the lower limbs, partially preserved along with the torso, reproduce the supple pose of the ancient statue, in which the lifted shoulder is balanced by the outward displacement of the hip brought about by the support on the left side, the current iconography of the upper limbs is the result of a misunderstanding by the restorer who made the right arm bent forward, holding a cup, and the left resting on a pillar. This made the figure’s original pose, in which the right arm was down at his side and the left bent on a higher support, less obvious. The modern head correctly reproduces the original pose, tilted to the right, and the hair, some curls of which are still preserved on the ancient torso.
The iconography of the young god originated in Greece, where it gained prominence in both Attic vase painting and sculpture from 425 BCE onward, becoming predominant in the sculpture of the 4th-century BCE and the Hellenistic period. From the Augustan age onward, the subject was then enormously popular throughout the Roman world, used on oil lamps, gems, coins, reliefs, mosaics, and in sculpture, particularly in private settings, where Greek sculptural models were reworked and adapted for decorative purposes. The Borghese sculpture therefore falls within the eclectic creations of Roman workshops that drew on late-classical and Hellenistic models; in this case, the type of reference can be identified in the Dionysus of Woburn Abbey (Gasparri 1986, p. 435, no. 120; Angelicoussis 2001, pp. 99-100 no. 12), generally considered the most faithful replica of a 4th-century BCE creation, probably referable to the circle of Praxiteles (Pochmarski 1974, pp. 94-101; Capaldi 2009, p. 134). Among the closest sculptures in terms of iconography is the Dionysus in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence (Saladino 2003, fig. 124). The fluid modelling of the ancient torso suggests a dating of our statue to the Hadrianic age.
Jessica Clementi
Bibliography
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- Scheda di catalogo 12/00147900, P. Moreno 1975; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2021.
