The figure of the Bacchus largely derives from the celebrated marble of antiquity, the Medici 'Apollino' installed in the Tribuna of the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, in the late 1760s. However, an antique 'Bacchus' was also recorded in the Medici collection 'leaning one arm upon a stump'. A related pelt-draped Bacchus with vine-twined stump was executed in 1751 by Michael Rysbrack. It was described by Horace Walpole as 'Composed by Rysbrack from different antiques' (see K. Eustace, Michael Rysbrack, London, 1982, no. 87).