altar
- Museum number
- 1805,0703.208
- Description
-
Marble altar to Bacchus: his companion Silenus rides a panther. With minor restorations.
- Production date
- 1stC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 67.31 centimetres
-
Width: 43.18 centimetres
-
Depth: 35.56 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Cook 2011, nr. 25:
An altar described by Townley as ‘A votive cippus sacred to Bacchus, two feet six inches high; in front is a Silenus seated upon a tyger, with a Thyrsus in his hand, and above him the crotola’ (TY 12/3).
Bought from Pacilli in 1768 for 20 Scudi (TY 10/1-2; TY 10/3, fo. 2; TY 10/5), rendered as £6 in TY 10/7. Its presence in the early transcripts leaves no doubt that Pacilli was the source for this object, but as early as about 1781 it was assigned by Townley to Cardelli (TY 12/1), and in the ‘L’ Catalogue of about 1787-8 (TY 12/3) it is specifically stated to have been ‘purchased at Rome from Cav. Piranesi’ (perhaps by confusion with 1805.7-3.209 (Sculpture 2490)). This error is repeated in the Townley Hall Catalogue and the JT Catalogue, which were derived from the ‘L’ Catalogue, in ST 1, TY 12/4, and finally in (GR 2), where the date of acquisition is given as 1771. The last catalogue being available to Smith, this double error was repeated in his Catalogue.
Drawings:
* Townley drawings 2010,5006.302.
* Chambers: B. F. Cook, `The Townley Marbles in Westminster and Bloomsbury', The British Museum Yearbook, 2 (1977), 48-49. figs. 30-31, no. 35.
Date:
Flavian (Dräger: Rome 1771, from Piranesi, in error)
Bibliography:
- Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum (1808) VI.67.
- Ancient Marbles of the British Museum, X, pl. 55, fig. 1.
- A Guide to the Graeco-Roman Sculptures in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum) (2 vols., London 1874 [2nd ed. 1879] and 1876), II, no. 112.
- A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol. III (London 1904), 387, 389 no. 2491.
- Olaf Dräger, Religionem significare. Studien zu reich verzierten
römischen Altären und Basen aus Marmor (RM Ergänzungsheft 33, Mainz 1994), 198-9, no. 21, pl. 82.4.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1805
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1805,0703.208
