Sales catalogue: Christies

Date:
23-24 July 1917
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/4/90
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue: Christies. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    99/104 page 45
    257, DIONYSOS AND IDOL ¢Bacchus and Ceres” of. the older writers): antique group in fine-grained marble with greyish markings—6 ft. 6 an. hagh—Greek. The ‘‘modern”’ knowledge of this celebrated group goes back to 1704, when it was in the possession of the Marquis Cavalieri. ~The Hope family acquired it from the Aldobrandini Palace late in the 18th century. Dionysos is represented in short chiton and fawn-skin tightly confined by the girdle, and is crowned with a wreath of ivy. The Idol, a statue of an Aphrodité-Spes, crowned with flowers, forms the support for his left arm, and is draped in the archaic manner. ‘The main part of the group,’ as has been elsewhere pointed out, ‘shows a close connection of the two figures,” and is admirably executed. The remarkable preservation of the group is attested by the fact that both heads, most of the draped portions of the figures, and three of the feet are antique. The restoration work has been ably done. A great work of art: “the com- position and execution of the whole are excellent,” is the comment of the writer in “Specimens of Antient Sculpture,” vol. ii., where the work is worthily illustrated [Puate XX.]
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