CIRCA EARLY 3RD CENTURY A.D.

This dynamic and joyful Dionysiac scene shows the young god Bacchus holding a bunch of grapes in his left hand and a cornucopia in his right above his head, which is adorned with an ivy wreath. The child god is smiling, while being carried over the shoulders by a young nude satyr who looks up to him while holding his left arm. The god Pan, with hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, is shown next to a tree stump, holding a syrinx and pedum, while resting his left hoof on a cista from which a snake is emerging; next to the container, Cupid rides a panther while holding a bunch of grapes in his left hand.

Dionysus, or Bacchus for the Romans, was the god of wine-making, fertility and pleasure. He was the son of Zeus and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes. During her pregnancy Semele, tricked by the vindictive Hera, asked Zeus to appear in front of her without any disguise, showing his true power. The god obliged, but the mortal Semele was blasted by thunderbolts at his appearance. Zeus, however, managed to save his unborn son, sewing him into his thigh until ready for his 'second' birth. Zeus then tasked Hermes to protect the baby from the still-jealous Hera and spirit him away to safety. According to various myths Hermes either took him to the Boeotian King Athamas and his wife Ino, Dionysus' aunt where the couple raised the boy as a girl to hide him from Hera's wrath, or he took Dionysus to the rain-nymphs of Nysa.

Pan, satyrs and panthers, as well as maenads, were all often depicted as part of the wild and unruly retinue of Dionysus, as an expression of the uncontrollable forces of nature and the unrestrained celebration of sensuality and ecstatic intoxication.

The present sculptural group with the 'good-natured' satyr carrying the child Bacchus on his shoulders is modelled after an example in the collection of Villa Albani (no. 148), most likely copied from a Hellenistic original in bronze of the 'rococo' trend of the 3rd century B.C., see M. Bieber, The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age, New York, 1961, p. 139, fig. 569, and no. 693 in C. Gaspari, “Dionysos,” in LIMC. Other replicas of the same type are in the Vatican and in the Copenhagen Glyptothek.

Cupid, the personification of love, is often depicted in art riding on animals associated with his mother Venus, such as the dolphin, or, like in this case, associated with the Bacchic cult such as goats and panthers. For a mosaic depicting Cupid riding a panther found in the Casa del Fauno in Pompei and now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (inv. no. 8403) see Archne Database no. 1198669. For another sculptural group with a young Bacchus flanked by a diminutive satyr riding a panther see Centrale Montemartini, invo. no. 1132, Arachne Database no. 17760.