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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1949.47.145
Title
Lower Right Part of a Hellenistic-Type Landscape Relief, Dionysiac Scene
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
early 2nd century CE
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291339

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Marble
Dimensions
actual: 27.3 x 29.2 cm (10 3/4 x 11 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, Sold to the Fogg Art Museum, 1949. Probably purchased at one of three sales of Brummer's merchandise held in 1949.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year
1949
Object Number
1949.47.145
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
96

Lower Right Part of a Hellenistic-Type Landscape Relief, Dionysiac Scene

Sharp diagonal cut across the top from upper right to lower left. The left edge missing, the right edge is preserved. Drillwork visible around altar.

This copy has been dated early in the second century A.D. What remains comprises the lower part of a dancing maenad facing the foot of a seated satyr. At the right are a rustic altar, a herm, and a tree.

The scene can be reconstructed from another, complete Graeco-Roman relief, in Berlin, which came from Prusias ad Hypium in Bithynia. It shows that the satyr was grasping the maenad's right hand, which held a drinking horn.

The provenance of the relief in Berlin at major Imperial city in northwest Asia Minor and the relationship to the bronze group known as the Invitation to the Dance suggest the original of these two reliefs was very likely made in a Bithynian or Mysian center such as Cyzicus, where the Invitation to the Dance appears on Greek Imperial coins. Pergamon under Marcus Aurelius (Emperor A.D. 161-180) also created a masterful numismatic reverse, a satyr and the young Dionysos, based on a relief related to these examples (Vermeule, C., 1983, p. 14, fig. 23).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • George M. A. Hanfmann, "A Hellenistic Landscape Relief", American Journal of Archaeology (1966), 70, pp. 371, 373, pl. 94: the Fogg and Berlin reliefs
  • Caroline Houser, Dionysos and His Circle: Ancient Through Modern, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1979), no. 40.
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America, University of California Press (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1981), p. 232, under no. 194
  • Caroline Houser, "Alexander's Influence on Greek Sculpture as Seen in a Portrait in Athens", National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., 1982), pp. 60-61, no. 40
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 110, no. 96

Exhibition History

  • Landscape in Art: Origin and Development, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia
  • Dionysos and His Circle: Ancient through Modern, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/10/1979 - 02/10/1980

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu