Bacchus
British (English) School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1760 - circa 1763
Materials
Stone
Place of origin
Derbyshire
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108045
Summary
Stone, Bacchus, British (English) School, c.1760-63. A stone statue depicting Bacchus, the Roman goddess of wine, installed on the pediment of the North Front exterior of Kedleston Hall (completed 1763). One of three statues, with Venus (NT 108044) and Ceres (NT 1080446. Bacchus is depicted as a young man, wearing a wreath of wines. He is nude, with the exception of a drapery tied around the lower half of his body, and leans against a tree trunk or half column, holding a goblet in his proper right hand.
Full description
The statue is listed within 'Stone Statues for the North Pediment - Bacchus; Venus; Ceres' in a manuscript 'List of Statues I have' written around 1760 by Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Scarsdale (1726-1804), The statues are listed in the 1769 'Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston' (p.3, under 'Portico Statues). They are likely the work of local stone carvers working to designs by Robert Adam (see, for example, NT 109418, 109422). Alice Rylance-Watson February 2019
Provenance
Purchased by Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Scarsdale (1726-1804) c.1760-63; identifiable under 'Portico-Statues' in the 'Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston', 1769 (p. 3); purchased with part of the contents of Kedleston Hall with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1986 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000).
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
British (English) School, stone carver after Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), architect after Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), designer
References
Curzon 1769: Nathaniel Curzon, Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston, with some account of the architecture, 1769, p. 3