Ambrogio Celi

AMBROGIO CELI (1842 - 1924)
"Bacchus".
Carved marble.
Part of the barrel and the arm with the cup are redone.
Signed.
Measurements: 97 x 40 x 35 cm.
Sculpture in white marble representing Bacchus child squeezing a bunch of grapes on a bowl is part of the neoclassical tradition of the nineteenth century, where the treatment of mythological themes is dressed in a playful, refined and often moralizing. This work, of meticulous execution and academic workmanship, embodies not only an exaltation of idealized childhood, but also a symbolic reinterpretation of the god of wine from a domestic and decorative perspective, characteristic of nineteenth-century bourgeois taste.
The choice of this theme in the context of the nineteenth century responds to the interest in classical myths as a vehicle for aesthetic and moral expression. In a period marked by historicism and the search for ideal models in Greco-Roman art, figures such as Bacchus adapt to the new decorative paradigm, where sculpture plays a central role in the setting of living rooms, gardens and private collections. The white marble, due to its connotation of purity and nobility, reinforces the idealized character of the scene, while allowing a detailed execution of the textures, especially in the representation of the hair, the infant skin and the soft folds of the cloth that envelops him.