Lifesize Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus dating to the Flavian Period

Culture: Roman

Period: 70-100 A.D.

Material: Marble

Dimensions: 87 cm high

Price: Sold

Ref: 3242

Provenance: 18th century European private collection due to the restorations. Acquired from the last owner in Lebanon in the early 1980s. Thence Sotheby’s London, Ancient Marbles, 13 June 2016, lot 46. Last in the private collection A. M., Germany.

Condition: Two grapes are modern, the head belonging and reattached, right elbow reattached, left hand broken and reattached, restorations on the left leg and on the plinth.

Description: Lifesize marble figure of a youthful Bacchus, who stands with his right leg next to a short tree trunk on the original plinth. The young god has a round belly and wears a cape, which slips off his left shoulder and hence covers his private part. A tip on the left side is raised and tucked between hip and elbow. He holds a grape in the left hand, the right arm bent to the shoulder. The weight stands on the right leg, the left free leg is slightly turned outwards. The short, curly hair is held with a twisted filet of grapes and ivy-berries. The chubby face is friendly, with vigilant eyes and a gentle smile. The body of this figure is known from a type that is preserved today in around 20 statues from the Roman period. The Hellenistic original depicts possibly the youthful Hermes and was later repeatedly adapted. See for the Hermes depiction Klaus Fittschen, “Katalog der antiken Skulpturen in Schloss Erbach”, AF 3 Berlin 1977, pages 11 ff., Kat.-Nr. 2, fig. 2. See for a youth with a headdress similar to the present statuette dating to the Flavian period Flemming Johansen “Roman Portraits II”, NY Carlsberg Glyptotek 1995, p. 56f., number 16.