Bacchus and a Faun

1580/1600

This free-standing bronze sculpture shows a nude, cleanshaven man looking at a bunch of grapes he holds up in one hand as a faun, a boy with goat’s legs, looks on. In this photograph, the man’s lean, muscular body is angled to our left, and we see his face in profile. He has a straight nose, and his lips curl up in a smile. A leafy vine wraps around his thick, wavy hair, and another bunch of grapes hangs at the back of his neck. He holds the other bunch of grapes up high in his right hand, to our left. He holds a shallow dish in his other hand, with that bent elbow tucked near his ribcage. He stands with most of his weight on his left leg, to our right, so his hips and shoulders gently twist upward to the raised hand. The toes of his other foot rest behind him, his heel raised. To our right, the child-like faun comes up to the man’s hip. He has chubby cheeks and a small nose but muscles are defined in his torso and arms. He also has grape leaves on his head, with clusters of grapes at each ear. Wide-eyed and with an open smile, he gazes up toward the bowl and grapes that the man holds. A fabric strap is knotted on the faun’s right shoulder, and it runs diagonally across his body to his left hip where he holds two more large bunches of grapes and leaves. His upper thighs are covered with dense, wavy hair, while his lower legs are mostly bare, ending in cloven hooves. The pair stand on a circular base with bunches of grapes around the faun’s feet and hanging over the edge. The bronze is dark brown with bright white reflections where the light falls across the smooth surfaces. Touches of muted green patina are visible in some spots. The entire piece stands on a square, stone base marbled with tan and cream white, and the background is light gray.

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On View

West Building Main Floor, West Sculpture Hall

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 181.5 x 76 x 65.2 cm (71 7/16 x 29 15/16 x 25 11/16 in.)
    gross weight: 263.54 kg (581 lb.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.133

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Installed in the garden, outside the nymphaeum, of the Villa Litta Visconti Borromeo, Lainate, near Milan, before 1617 (and possibly part of the original installation completed in 1589);[1] purchased c. 1865 by "Prince Napoleon,"[2] Palais Royal, Paris; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9-11 May 1872, 2nd day, no. 221, with NGA 1937.1.132 as no. 222); Wareham; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 25 July 1891, no. 91, with NGA 1937.1.132 as no. 92, withdrawn); (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 20 May 1892, no. 147, with NGA 1937.1.132 as no. 146).[3] Marquis de Ganay, Paris, by 1913; purchased by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[4] purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[5] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] Giancarlo Gentilini and Alessandro Morandotti, "The Sculptures of the Nymphaeum at Lainate: The Origins of the Mellon Venus and Bacchus." Studies in the History of Art 24 (1990): 135-171, especially Appendices A and B, which detail the documentary evidence, and 166 n. 3, which discusses the later history of the sculpture's whereabouts and details the inaccuracies in previously published versions of the provenance.
[2] This was probably Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte (1822-1891), who was a first cousin to Napoleon III, and commonly known as Prince Napoleon and occasionally as Prince Jerome Napoleon. He occupied the Palais Royal during Napoleon III's rule as head of the Second French Empire, 1852-1870.
[3] The 1891 and 1892 sales were kindly brought to the Gallery's attention by Patricia Wengraf; see her e-mails of 3 February 2009 to Alison Luchs, in NGA curatorial files. Both sales, according to the catalogues, were ordered by the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice as part of the case of Trau v. Wareham. The sellers are recorded in both years as Messrs. Rye and Eyre of Golden Square, London; the buyer in 1892 is recorded only as the initial "J." Lynda McLeod, Librarian, Christie's Archives, kindly provided the seller and buyer information in her e-mail of 1 August 2012, in NGA curatorial files.
[4] Letter from G.H. McCall, Librarian for Duveen Brothers to Charles Seymour, Jr., 6 March 1940, in NGA curatorial files.
[5] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files; the sculpture is listed as by Jacopo Sansovino.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1913

  • Exposition d'Objets d'Art du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance, Paris, 1913.

Bibliography

1937

  • Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 28.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 236, A-22, as Bacchus and a Young Faun by Jacopo Sansovino.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 253, repro. 236, as Bacchus and a Young Faun by Jacopo Sansovino.

1943

  • De Tolnay, Charles. Michelangelo. 5 vols. Princeton, 1943: 1:144.

  • Swarzenski, Georg. "Some Aspects of Italian Quattrocento Sculpture in the National Gallery." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th series, 24 (November 1943): 301 fig. 16, 302, as by Jacopo Sansovino.

1944

  • Duveen Brothers, Inc. Duveen Sculpture in Public Collections of America: A Catalog Raisonné with illustrations of Italian Renaissance Sculptures by the Great Masters which have passed through the House of Duveen. New York, 1944: figs. 189-193, as by Jacopo Sansovino.

1945

  • Weinberger, Martin. "Book Review, review of The Youth of Michelangelo, by Charles Tolnay." The Art Bulletin 27 (1945): 69-74.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 169, repro., as Bacchus and a Young Faun by Jacopo Sansovino.

1956

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Shorter Notes: A Neglected Sculptor in the Mannerist Exhibition at Amsterdam." The Art Quarterly 19 (Spring 1956): 41-49, repro. fig. 2.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 170, as Bacchus and a Young Faun by Jacopo Sansovino.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 150, repro., as Bacchus and a Young Faun by Jacopo Sansovino.

1973

  • Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 42, 62

1987

  • "The Mellon Venus." National Gallery of Art Newsletter (July-August 1987): 5.

1990

  • Lewis, Douglas and Luchs, Alison. "Report on the First Curatorial Colloquy at the National Gallery of Art, June 1987." Studies in the History of Art 24 (1990):131-133.

  • Gentilini, Giancarlo and Morandotti, Alessandro. "The Sculptures of the Nymphaeum at Lainate: The Origins of the Mellon Venus and Bacchus." Studies in the History of Art 24 (1990): 136-138, 155-160, repro.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 151, repro.

1998

  • Zanuso, Susanna. "Marco Antonio Prestinari: Scultore di Federico Borromeo." Nuovi studi 5 (1998): 85-109, fig. 185.

2000

  • National Gallery of Art Special Issue. Connaissance des Arts. Paris, 2000:59.

2003

  • Ozone, Judy, and Shelley G. Sturman. “Technical investigation of the Mellon Venus and Bacchus and a Faun.” In Peta Motture, ed., Large Bronzes in the Renaissance. Studies in the History of Art 64, Symposium Papers 41 (2003): 203-213.

2005

  • Morandotti, Alessandro. Milano profana nell'età dei Borromeo. Milan, 2005: 39, 42, 58, 77 n. 6, 85 nn. 232 and 238, 242-243, figs. XXII, XXIII, 282 fig. 204.

Wikidata ID

Q63810086

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