Record details

• generalData.authorNameInListings

  Italian school

• generalData.title

  Ménade

• generalData.creationDate

  Final del segle XVIII - principi del XIX

• technicalData.measurements

  42,5 x 27,9 cm

• technicalData.description

  Marble relief. One of the Mènades, according to the model of 400 bc.

• technicalData.complementaryDescription

  This neoclassical marble relief from the late 18th to early 19th century, repeats the composition of one of the reliefs depicting a dancing maenad, dated around 400 BCE, by Greek sculptor Callimachus. This famous sculptor of Greek antiquity, active in Athens from 432 to 408 BCE, is said to have authored a series of marble reliefs depicting life-size dancing maenads, probably painted bronze. The original destination of these reliefs is not certain, but several hypotheses have been raised to date, such as the decoration of the rectangular base of a statue of Dionysus. Many copies of these maenads attributed to the sculptor Callimachus were made in Roman times, and many versions have been found which are identical to ours (London, British Museum; Paris, Louvre Museum; Florence, Uffizi Gallery; Rome, Capitol Museums). A maenad is depicted dancing, drunkenly. She is dressed in the traditional chiton, a finely pleated tunic, belted at the waist and complemented by a scarf, which falls like a wet drape, revealing her forms. In her right hand, she brandishes a long knife with which she has just sacrificed a goat, whose hind quarters she holds in the other hand. Maenads were known for hunting wild animals of which they consumed the blood and raw meat. A relatively common portrayal of them in ancient art depicted them holding the fore- or hind quarters of the animal in their hands.