Dancing Maenad relief
- Title:
- Dancing Maenad relief
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Mihaloew, Andreya
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
1st or 2nd c. CE (Roman copy)
late 5th c. BCE (Greek original)
2016 (image)
- Site:
- Unknown (original)
- Location:
- Klarman Hall (Room K109), Cornell University
Unknown (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0852
- Accession Number:
- possibly Sage no. 266
old, yellowed tag at bottom right reads "66"
"Berlin" and "K.M." inscribed on reverse
other undiscernible pencil marks and inscriptions on back
781 - File Name:
- CCC_0852.tif
- Culture:
- Roman, after Greek
- Style/Period:
- Roman Imperial, Neo-Attic, after Greek Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in relief (original) - Subject:
- Bacchantes
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 65 x 42.6 x 6.3 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of a relief of an ecstatic maenad held in the British Museum, a Roman copy of a late fifth century BCE Greek original. Eight or nine maenads are attributed to the same original Classical monument. The maenads were copied widely in the Roman period, on different scales and with figures variously arranged. This maenad is identified as type 25 (see Touchette, p. 5). She is depicted in profile with her torso turned to three-quarter view, facing and moving on a rocky ground line towards the viewer's left. Her intricately rendered, billowing drapery has slipped to expose her left breast. She holds a long dagger in her right hand, which is bent up behind her head. In her left hand, she carries the severed hindquarters of a small goat or kid. Her hair is wrapped in a sakkos and she looks down at the ground. The original monument from which this and the other maenads from the series came can be securely associated with Dionysos, but its form remains the subject of scholarly debate, with some suggesting that the figures belonged to a tripod base commemorating a choregic victory, some that they decorated an altar, and some that they adorned the base of a cult statue of Dionysos. It also remains unknown whether the base or altar was circular, three, or four sided. Cornell holds two distinct copies of this maenad in its cast collection, this one from the Villa Albani in Rome and the other (ID no. 644) from the British Museum.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 1007 - Bibliography:
- Lori-Ann Touchette, The Dancing Maenad Reliefs, BICS Supplement 62 (London, 1995), 78, no. 35, pl. 23b.
Werner Fuchs, Die Vorbilder der neuattischen Reliefs. Jahrbuch des deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Suppl. 20 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1959), 74, no. 14, pl. 15d. - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Rome, Villa Albani (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.