Bacchus and Ariadne (after the Antique)
Italian School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1830 - 1869
Materials
Alabaster
Measurements
335 x 160 x 105 mm
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Erddig, Wrexham
NT 1151827
Summary
Sculpture. An alabaster sculpture, Bacchus and Ariadne (after the Antique), Italian School mid-19th century. After the Antique sculpture called Priapos/Dionysos and a Maenad from a Roman statue of the Imperial Period, about 1st–2nd century AD now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA (ex-Smith Barry Collection at Marbury Hall, Cheshire). An alabaster group (a museum trophy) of Bacchus and Ariadne. Bacchus, the god of wine, is falling in love with Ariadne having found her abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, after she had saved him from the Cretan minotaur. Later he demonstrates his love by raising her to the heavens and making her a constellation.
Provenance
Given by Phillip Yorke III (1905-1978) along with the estate, house and contents to the National Trust in 1973
Makers and roles
Italian School, sculptor
References
Haskell and Penny 1981: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500 - 1900, New Haven and London, 1981, 26, p. 191