AFTER MICHELANGELO, FRENCH, 17TH CENTURY

The present group depicting the drunken Bacchus is a close interpretation of Michelangelo’s original commission in marble for the Cardinal Riario which was executed in 1496- 97 (see Baldini, loc.cit.). It is said that the Cardinal was unimpressed by the figure but the wealthy Roman banker Jacopo Galli thought otherwise and acquired it to add to his collection. Through his contact with antique sculpture, mostly in the Medici collection, Michelangelo achieved a thorough understanding of aesthetic form and composition. A group he certainly would have been aware of, and possibly inspired by, is the 1st century Roman marble group of Bacchus and a Satyr, (see Pope-Hennessy, loc. cit.). In his interpretation of the group he removed the large tree trunk of the antique model and instead incorporates a smaller trunk behind the figure of the infant satyr standing at his side to provide the necessary support for the weight of the marble. This technically daring innovation resulted in a freer and more naturalistic composition. Though the group was rejected by his original patron, the Bacchus is considered to be a masterpiece and, remarkably, still the first major commission for the 21-year old artist. Equally astounding is that the following year Michelangelo, with the help of his new patron Galli, went on to produce one of his greatest works and one of the quintessential images of the time, the Pietà for the Basilica of St Peter’s in Rome.

Despite the popularity of the Pietà, it was the Bacchus from among Michelangelo’s early works that seems to have most interested later artists such as Pietro da Barga (illustrated in Montagu, loc. cit.) and Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (Pratesi, loc. cit.) as well as other unidentified Florentine artists (Planiscig, loc. cit.). Doubtless it was the youthful and androgynous lure of the god of wine that enticed them. Soldani and da Barga remained faithful to the original model depicting Bacchus as drunk, bloated and slightly off balance. The posture of the present figure is also very close to the original, but the artist has modified some details such as the roundness of the face, the twisted head, the exposed genitals and the incising of the detail on the leopard skin. Ironically, what is presented is a sober looking figure raising his chalice in triumph rather than an inebriated god of revelry.

What is clear in both the original marble and the present bronze version, is that the attributes which identify this god as Bacchus are of secondary importance to the delicate modelling of the musculature and the harmonious pose. One of the greatest achievements in creating these figures lies in the way that Bacchus subtly twists the upper part of his torso to the left while his pelvis turns to the right, and in looking slightly off balance without creating imbalance in the overall composition. The resulting effect brings out the youthful suppleness of the god of wine and thus distances him from the more static and restrained classical sculptures such as the Belvedere Antinous in Rome, the Apollino, in the Uffizi and the famous Castor and Pollux in Madrid (illustrated in Haskell and Penny, op. cit., figs. 4, 7 and 19).