A Roman Marble Head of Dionysos, circa 1st Century A.D.

Rome art market

Munich art market, by 1932

private collection, Switzerland, acquired in the early 1980s

by descent from the above to the present owner

Documented

three photographs accessioned in 1932 in the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom: D-DAI-ROM-2631_A12-A14: arachne.dainst.org/entity/775167, arachne.dainst.org/entity/775168, arachne.dainst.org/entity/775169

three photographs accessioned in 1933 in the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom: D-DAI-ROM-33.809-11: arachne.dainst.org/entity/4673109; arachne.dainst.org/entity/4673111; arachne.dainst.org/entity/4673112 ("Rom, Kunsthandel")

Published

Paul Arndt and Georg Lippold, Brunn-Bruckmanns Denkmäler griechischer und römischer Sculptur, Munich, 1932, no. 745, figs. 1-3

Erwin Pochmarski, Das Bild des Dionysos in der Rundplastik der klassischen Zeit Griechenlands, Vienna, 1974, pp. 144ff., fig. 34a

Carlo Gasparri, "Dionysos," in: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. 3, Zürich, 1986, p. 444, no. 198b, pl. 319

Exhibited

on loan to the Antikenmuseum Basel, 1981-2024 (on view in the 1980s and 90s)

The present head, of vivid and careful workmanship, is a prime example of the sculptural style of the Parthenon pediments. The few still discernible strands of hair on the badly weathered head of the reclining figure of Dionysos from the Parthenon's east pediment show a related disposition and rendering of the locks. It is tempting to imagine that the head of the Parthenon figure resembled the present head in other ways. By contrast, the present head wears a broad fillet covered by the hair in back, whereas the head of the Parthenon figure wears a plaited fillet covered by the hair in front. Another avenue of comparison leads to the head of the Doryphoros of Polykleitos (see the bronze replica from Herculaneum: arachne.dainst.org/entity/1073522), which has a similar, yet higher placed starfish-like hair motif on the crown of the head.