"Bacchus child". France, 19th century

"Bacchus child". France, XIX century.
Carrara marble.
Marble base of later period.
Measurements: 66 x 41 x 30 cm.

The sculpture presented, whose infantile figure represents the young Bacchus or one of his acolytes, can be related to the work preserved in the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris: "Jeune enfant du cortège de Bacchus". Both pieces share a distinctive bodily disposition: the character appears reclining on a rock, in a playful attitude, with his torso uncovered and his arm raised holding a bunch of grapes, one of the most recognizable attributes of the god of wine. This gesture not only underlines the festive and sensual character of the character, but also alludes directly to the Dionysian drunkenness as a vehicle for the liberation of human passions. Likewise, in both sculptures we can appreciate the presence of a beast skin -probably a tiger or panther- arranged as an ornament. This element is fundamental in Bacchic iconography, since feline beasts were considered animals consecrated to Bacchus, as symbols of the untamed nature and instinctive debauchery that characterize the Dionysian cult.

This type of representation finds notable precedents in the work of Claude Michel, known as Clodion (1738-1814), a French sculptor famous for his mythological and bacchanalian scenes treated with exquisite delicacy and dynamism. Clodion developed a particular iconography around child and adolescent figures linked to the entourage of Bacchus, such as fauns, bacchantes and small satyrs. His disciple, Joseph Charles Marin (1759-1834), perpetuated this tradition with sculptures of similar subject matter and treatment, contributing to the spread of this Bacchic imagery in the transition to Neoclassicism.

God of the vine, wine, fertility and ecstasy, Bacchus embodies the duality between civilization and nature, between order and chaos. Bacchanals - ritual feasts dedicated to his cult - have been represented in art since Antiquity, oscillating between the exaltation of sensory pleasures and the moral warning about their excesses.