Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE C: WORLD ART
Preferred Title:
Relief with Dancing Maenads
Image View:
Detail, one of the maenads holding head and forequarter of sacrificed animal and holding a thyrsus staff
Creator:
after Kallimachos (Ancient Greek sculptor, active 2nd half of 5th century BCE); unknown (Roman (ancient) sculptor)
Location:
repository: Museo Barracco (Rome, Lazio, Italy) Inv. MB 124
Location Note:
Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 166/A
GPS:
41.896111 12.477222
Date:
Greek original, ca. 450-400 BCE (creation)
Cultural Context:
Roman (ancient)
Style Period:
Greco-Roman; Neo-Attic
Work Type 1:
relief (sculpture)
Classification:
Sculpture and Installations
Material:
Pentelic marble
Technique:
carving (processes)
Subjects:
human figure; music; mythology (Classical); Dionysus (Greek deity); dance; maenad; bacchantes; animal sacrifice
Description:
Neo-Attic refers to the style of sculptors in the Roman Empire of the first century BCE to the second century CE who copied Classical Greek sculpture. Three maenads (followers of Dionysus) have just completed the sacrifice that allows initiates to unite with the god by drinking the victims’ blood. Now, grasping parts of the dismembered animals, they whirl in an orgiastic dance. The iconography derives from a series created in Athens by Kallimachos on the occasion of the performance of Euripides' Bacchae in 406/405 BCE. The subject enjoyed such success in the Roman world that such scenes became typical in Neo-Attic art. (Source: Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica [website]; http://www.museobarr acco.it/en/)
Collection:
Archivision Adjunct Module C: World Art
Identifier:
7A2-I-R-MB-RWDM-A04
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Relief with Dancing Maenads