Lot Essay
The present group depicts Bacchus consoling Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete. Abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos after having helped him escape from the Minotaur's labyrinth, Bacchus found and rescued her, and they were married shortly afterwards. Dalou has depicted the god embracing Ariadne and accompanied by an infant satyr attendant.
This group probably relates to the small marble of the same subject which Dalou executed for M. Drapé in 1894 (Dreyfous, op. cit.). Sketches and bronze casts of the terracotta model for M. Drapé's group exist, and a plaster cast is in the Petit Palais, but they differ from the present group. Whereas the final marble shows a more cohesive and vertical composition, the present group is more pyramidal and the composition is strengthened by the strong diagonals of the protagonists' legs. In the marble Bacchus is shown half kneeling and supporting a slumped Ariadne, in the present group they are seated facing each other in a more classical composition somewhat echoing a Cupid and Psyche pose, it is a more romantic and delicate image, and arguably a more pleasing composition finely cast by Hébrard.
This group probably relates to the small marble of the same subject which Dalou executed for M. Drapé in 1894 (Dreyfous, op. cit.). Sketches and bronze casts of the terracotta model for M. Drapé's group exist, and a plaster cast is in the Petit Palais, but they differ from the present group. Whereas the final marble shows a more cohesive and vertical composition, the present group is more pyramidal and the composition is strengthened by the strong diagonals of the protagonists' legs. In the marble Bacchus is shown half kneeling and supporting a slumped Ariadne, in the present group they are seated facing each other in a more classical composition somewhat echoing a Cupid and Psyche pose, it is a more romantic and delicate image, and arguably a more pleasing composition finely cast by Hébrard.