Dionysus and Ariadne
Italian (Neapolitan) School or British (English) School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1895 - circa 1925
Materials
Marble
Measurements
57 in (Height)
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516668
Summary
Marble, Dionysus and Ariadne, Italian (possibly Neapolitan) School, late 19th–early 20th century, after the antique. A double or janiform herm with Dionysus and his consort Ariadne back to back. Dionysus, the god of wine, in the archaizing style, with two rows of tightly coiled hair, a pointed forked beard with long curled moustache and braids falling at the shoulders. Ariadne with two rows of tightly coiled hair and braids falling at the shoulders. Dionysus and Ariadne connected by a crown from which bunches of grapes and vine fall over the ears. Mounted on tall, thin marble pedestal. Part of a set of four janiform hermai stationed at the corners of an intersection of four pathways, near the Rose Garden of Anglesey Abbey (see NT 516669–516671).
Full description
The herm is a type of Ancient Greek sculpture associated with Hermes, messenger of the gods and protector of borders, roads, and travellers. In their earliest form hermai were piles or blocks of stone representing the deities, and later developed into quadrangular pillars with a sculpted head and phallus, most often depicting Hermes. Hermai were venerated objects and placed at strategic points along roadsides or crossroads, outside of houses or to mark boundaries. They were believed to ward off evil, bring luck, wealth, and fertility. The two-faced rendering of hermai is a Roman variation invoking Janus, the god of transitions and journeys, of gates, doorways and passages, of beginnings and endings, and of duality. Janus himself is usually depicted bifrons, with one face looking to the future and one to the past. As with Hermes, Janus is a mediator between different worlds and in this respect the janiform hermai represent opposing and complimentary relationships such as old and young, divine and mortal, god and follower, male and female, husband and wife. The Anglesey Abbey examples, placed at the junction of four pathways leading to and from house and garden, are typical of the janiform type. The husband-wife/male-female pairing is seen in NT 516668 ad NT 516670, with Dionysus and Zeus and their consorts Ariadne and Hera back to back, while NT 516671 is an example of the young/old juxtaposition in which Hermes is depicted as a beardless youth and as a bearded adult in the Propylaios style. NT 516669 could represent the fraternal bond in an adult Hermes paired with a youthful Dionysus, his youngest sibling, or the god/follower relationship with Dionysus, god of wine, paired with one of his female followers (maenads). At the turn of the 20th century janiform hermai depicting Silenus and a bacchante and Dionysus and Ariadne were found in the peristyle of the House of the Vettii, considered to be the best preserved domus in the ancient city of Pompeii. Excavated for the first time between 1894 and 1896, the hermai are of similar proportions to the Anglesey Abbey group and are mounted on tall cylindrical pillars carved with a twining ivy motif. According to Lanning Roper, the hermai were brought to Anglesey Abbey from Park Close, the Surrey home of Lord Fairhaven’s mother Cara Rogers Broughton who had apparently purchased them in Naples (Roper 1964, p. 40). As was the practice in Florence and Rome, Neapolitan sculpture workshops were producing reproductions or derivations of local antiquities for the tourist market. Alice Rylance-Watson August 2019
Provenance
Reputedly brought back from Naples by Lord Fairhaven's mother, and originally placed in the gardens of Park Close, Englefield Green; bequeathed to the National Trust by Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Italian (Neapolitan) School or British (English) School , sculptor
References
Roper 1964: Lanning Roper, The Gardens of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. The Home of Lord Fairhaven, London 1964, p. 40. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 173.