Statue of a Maenad with ancient head (not original)

Roman art

This small-scale female figure is depicted in movement, with her right leg bent and advanced and the left following behind. She is wearing a sleeveless chiton, a kind of tunic, and a close-fitting mantle. She is also wearing a nebris, a fawn skin typically worn by Dionysus and his followers, diagonally across her chest and neck, which inspired the restoration of the figure as a Maenad, with the addition of the thyrsus in her right hand. The handling of the drapery and the dynamic pose suggest a link with the Colonna Artemis type, two copies of which are in the Galleria Borghese (Inv. XXXIII, LII), while the small frame with narrow shoulders and slender legs, recalls sculptures from the second century BCE.  

The sculpture, the torso of which, from the shoulders to the calf, is original, is datable to the late Hadrianic period. The head, which is ancient but not original, dates slightly earlier. The elegance of the features and soft modelling suggest that it was inspired by originals from the second half of the fourth century BCE.

It was restored in 1827 by the sculptor Antonio D’Este and documented in Room VII in 1833.

Object details

Commentary

Amidst the intense activity to prepare the rooms of the Palazzina Borghese after they were stripped following the sale to Napoleon, Minister Evasio Gozzani wrote a letter to Prince Camillo Borghese on 11 January 1927 announcing some of the works chosen to be restored and displayed. The Maenad, described as a ‘statua di Baccante, minore del vero’ (‘statue of a Bacchante, smaller than life size’), was being kept in the basement of the Palazzina at the time and its restoration was entrusted to the sculptor Antonio D’Este (Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Archivio Borghese, B. 74-57: Moreno, Sforzini 1987, p. 354). In the Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese of 1833, the statue is reported in Room VII, which was called the Egyptian Room at the time (C., p. 52, no. 158).

The figure, which as noted above is smaller than life size, is original from the shoulders to the calf.  She is wearing a sleeveless tunic that reveals the feet and ankles and is cinched at the waist by a knotted belt. Above the tunic, she wears a close-fitting mantle arranged to create a kind of pouch called a kolpos on her right hip. She also wears a nebris, a fawn skin, across her chest and neck, which is what inspired the sculpture’s restoration as a maenad, with the addition of a thyrsus, a typical attribute of Dionysian processions, in her raised right hand. The woman is portrayed taking a step forward, which Venturi describes as a ‘dance movement’, with her right leg slightly bent and advanced and her left leg behind to provide momentum (1893, p. 43). Her head, which is turned to the left, seems to interrupt the movement of the body, which is followed by the clothing. This movement seems to recall the Colonna Artemis type, which takes its named from a sculpture in Berlin that was in the Colonna Collection and is represented in the Borghese Collection by two other copies (inv. XXXIII, LII).

As noted by Lippold, the handling of the drapery, with different size folds for the tunic and mantle, as well as the body type, with narrow shoulders, small breasts and slender legs, recall the sculpture of the last Hellenistic period, of which the Borghese statue is a sophisticated replica from the late Hadrianic period (Lippold 1926, p. 16, no. 2763).

The head, which dates to slightly earlier, is not original. The face is in the shape of a long oval, with soft, delicate features that lend it a dreamy air. The forehead is framed by wavy locks of hair. Parted in the middle and held by a headband called a taenia, the hair is then gathered into a chignon behind the head. The almond shaped eyes are topped by even, arched brows. The mouth, with small lips, is partially open.

These elegant features recall representations of divinities and seem to have been inspired by originals dating to the late fourth century BCE.

Giulia Ciccarello