A ROMAN MARBLE SILENUS

CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE SILENUS
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
The follower of Bacchus depicted nude, standing with his right leg raised on a rocky outcrop, balancing a full wineskin on his thigh as he likely attempts to fill his cup, supporting the wineskin with his lowered right hand, the now-missing cup once held in his lowered left hand, his corpulent body with pendulous breasts and a small whorl of chest hair, a short tail low on his back, his head angled down and to his left, with pointed ears, a moustache and beard of corkscrew curls, a wreath of ivy and berries on his bald pate, a fringe of hair at the sides of his head, on an integral oval plinth
44½ in. (113 cm.) high

Provenance

Art Market, Germany, 1960s.
Mrs. Maria Ortmeier, Linz, Austria, 1960s; thence by descent to her nephew Mr. Hermann Weich, St. Johann im Pongau, Austria, 2009.

Lot Essay

The Roman love of decorative sculpture with Bacchic themes, often with humorous overtones, is well documented from Pompeii and elsewhere. Silenus can be paired with the god (see no. 82 in Giroire and Roger, Roman Art from the Louvre) or shown on his own in various activities, including making music and holding the infant Bacchus (nos. 214-215 in Simon, "Silenoi," in LIMC). For a younger satyr pouring from a wineskin, which he carries on his shoulders, see no. 191 in Conticello, et al., Rediscovering Pompeii.

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