A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF DIONYSUS
A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF DIONYSUS
A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF DIONYSUS
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A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF DIONYSUS
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THE DEVOTED CLASSICIST: THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF A NEW YORK ANTIQUARIAN
A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF DIONYSUS

CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.

Details
A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF DIONYSUS
CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
14 1/4 in. (36.1 cm.) high
Provenance
with Ariadne Galleries, New York.
Antiquities, Sotheby's, New York, 20 June 1990, lot 46.
Acquired by the current owner from the above.

Brought to you by

Hannah Fox Solomon
Hannah Fox Solomon Head of Department, Specialist

Lot Essay

As K. Karoglou informs (p. 12 in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2010-2012," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 70, no. 2), depictions of the young Dionysus enjoyed a resurgent popularity during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 A.D.) and that such under life-sized figures most probably served a decorative rather than votive function. For a similar example but with the nebris knotted over the god’s right shoulder, compare the figure from Hadrian’s Villa, now in the Museo Nazionale Romano, no. 5 in C. Gasparri, “Dionysos/Bacchus,” LIMC, vol. III. See also a statue in Budapest, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum (no. 3174 in P. Arndt and W. Amelung, eds., Photographische Einzelaufnahmen Antiker Sculpturen) and one in New York of similar scale (Karoglou, op. cit.).

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