​Statuette of Seated Silenus

Roman art

This small statuette is an exemplar of the ‘Old Seated Silenus’ type, which derived from late-Hellenistic models inspired by originals by Lysippos. Unlike the other known copies, the Borghese figure has a muscular body and well-defined pectorals. The lower part of his body is covered with soft drapery. He holds a bunch of grapes and a bowl with a long stem in his hands. He has a thick beard and hair, and, on his forehead, two corymbs, an inflorescence similar to a bunch of grapes. His head is encircled by a thin ribbon.

The sculpture is not mentioned in the documentation or inventories relative to the Borghese Collection’s archaeological sculptures. We can therefore propose a date for the work based solely on stylistic analysis, which points to the second century CE.

Object details

Commentary

This small-scale statuette portrays a Silenus of advanced years sitting on a stool with a tall cushion called a pulvinus. The massive body, with a muscular, erect torso, is clothed in a mantle that starts from the shoulders to cover the entire back and legs. The elegantly rendered drapery is close-fitting and falls in horizontal folds over the belly falling beneath the left forearm. The arms are bent and held in front of the body. The figure holds a kylix, a bowl with a tall stem, in his left hand, which he rests on his left knee. He holds a bunch of grapes in his right hand. His head is slightly turned to the left and is encircled by a thin band that ends in two corymbs on his forehead. His long, wavy hair is arranged to reveal his pointed ears. His beard falls in corkscrew curls divided in the middle and covering his neck, and he has a thick moustache. He wears a slight smile, and his eyes are partly closed. He is wearing sandals that are closed in the back and have two straps on the sides joined on the front. The strips of leather are run between the big and second toes and decorated with a lozenge pattern that hides the joins. There is a piece of rectangular leather on the back of the sandals.

The sculpture is a copy of the Old Seated Silenus Drinking type, believed to be a late-Hellenistic iconographic model inspired by originals by Lysippos. It can be fruitfully compared to three statues with the same subject: one in the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museum that portrays the aged figure with a heavy body and sitting on a modern cista (Polito 2010, pp. 282–286); one in the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight that depicts the deity sitting on a rock (Waywell 1986, p. 83, no. 23, figs. 18-19) and one that came from the Mattei Collection in Rome (Guerrini 1982, p. 42)

The drapery, head and left arm of the Borghese statuette, which is not mentioned in the inventories or documentation relative to the collection’s archaeological sculptures, seem to be restored. There are large brown marks on the back of the statue. Based on stylistic analysis and comparison with other works, the sculpture is held to be a copy datable to the second century CE.

Giulia Ciccarello