Unidentified Roman sculptor, Cast of Silenus with the Infant Bacchus

Cast of Silenus with the Infant Bacchus, c.1800

After Unidentified Roman sculptor

RA Collection: Art

This is a plaster cast of the marble sculpture Silenus with the Infant Bacchus in the Louvre, itself believed to be a Roman copy of a bronze original by Lysippos or one of his followers. The statue was discovered by Carlo Muti before 1569 on his grounds near the present Cassino Massimo, and remained in Muti’s collection for many years, although it was in the Borghese collection by 1613. It was in the Villa Borghese by 1638, where it occupied a room named after it by 1650.

In the 17th century the statue was sometimes thought to represent Saturn holding a baby who he is about to devour, but by the late 18th century it was generally described as a Faun (frequently Silenus in particular) holding the infant Bacchus.

The statue was one of the most admired statues in Rome—it was frequently reproduced and sometimes classed alongside the Venus de’ Medici and the Farnese Hercules (both represented in the RA cast collection). A marble copy was made for Philip IV of Spain in 1650 while a marble copy was made for Versailles in 1684. Casts and copies continued to be popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The statue was purchased by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807 along with many of the Borghese antiquities, and was in the Musée Napoléon by 1811. By 1815 the statue had again had a room named after it in its new surroundings.

Further reading

Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), p.307

Object details

Title

Cast of Silenus with the Infant Bacchus

Artist/designer

After Unidentified Roman sculptor

After

Lysippus (fl. ca. 370 BC- ca. 300 BC)

Cast made by

Unknown maker

From

Original in Musée du Louvre, Paris

Date

c.1800

Object type

Sculpture Cast

Medium

Plaster cast

Dimensions

2007 mm x 907 mm x 870 mm, Weight: 202 kg

Collection

Royal Academy of Arts

Object number

03/1508

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