Dionysus/Bacchus with pardalide and bunch of grapes

In this sculpture, the young god Bacchus, the Greek Dionysus, is slightly undersized with his right arm raised while holding a copious bunch of grapes. On his shoulders, he carries a panther skin (pardalide), of which he is holding one end with the left hand and which falls onto his torso for support. The face of the god, which was particularly appreciated by Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717 -1768) for its soft modelling (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms Fonds allemand 68, f. 108 r), is framed by a bandage and by bunches of grapes falling over the temples. The torso, with its slender and youthful muscles, is characterised by a sinuous movement, and accompanies the pose of the figure resting on the left leg, while the right leg, which is slightly bent, seems to suggest a chiasmus with the position of the arms. The latter are the result of a modern integration made from several fragments, some of which may be ancient. The nose, the top of the head, the nape of the neck, the part of the neck with the panther skin adjacent to it, the head of the panther, the sections at the edges of the pardalide, the right leg from the knee onwards, the left leg from mid-thigh with the plinth, the torso, the lower edge of the panther skin, and the sex (of which has remained only a bronze pin) are also the result of restoration. In all likelihood, the archetype was the Westmacott Ephebe dating back to the late 5th century B.C. (Beck et alii 1990, 585 - 594).

A similar work is a statue that belonged to the collections of the National Roman Museum currently preserved in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome (Inv. no. 113203), which was found in the area of the Angelicum on the Quirinal Hill. However, in this sculpture the panther skin is arranged obliquely on the torso. Another similar piece is a statue of Bacchus that recently appeared on the antiquities market, which is preserved in a private collection in Rome. In this case, the large pardalide runs around the neck and is draped around the waist with a belt adorned with flowers, in a way that recalls a headless statue from the Ludovisi collection preserved in Brussels.

The numerous modern restorations do not help the dating; however, the soft rendering of the hair, as well as the considerable drill marks found in that area and in the grapes, together with the general style of the work, seem to recall the portraits of Antinous from the Hadrianic period, and especially the imaginative reinterpretations of tradition and the eclectic models that were typical of the Antonine period.

Due to its small size, the Florentine statue, whose provenance is unknown, was probably displayed in a garden, nymphaeum or thermal bath. After making a comparison with the Roman Bacchus, it has been also hypothesised that it could have been a decoration for a place of worship.

This sculpture, which enjoyed great fame between the 17th and 18th centuries, was probably mentioned for the first time in 1584 on the occasion of the sale of Capranica, together with two other representations of Bacchus. In 1588, the statue was probably placed in the Great Hall of Villa Medici in Rome, together with three other depictions of the same subject, and was also displayed there in the first years of the 18th century. In an engraving by Paolo Alessandro Maffei (1653 - 1716) dating back to the early 18th century, the statue appears already restored in its present form and is exhibited in the gardens of the Villa, while in the inventories of 1740 and 1774, it was listed among the works preserved in the Gallery of the Roman estate where it was probably transferred around the 1730s following the restoration of this very room. In 1778, the sculpture was still in Rome, where Francesco Carradori took care of restoring the left arm and the patina. Subsequently, after being included in the list of works to be transferred to Florence, in 1788 the statue finally arrived in the Tuscan capital. In 1794, it was placed in Boboli at the behest of the then director Tommaso Puccini. Today, this representation of Bacchus is preserved in the storage room of the Gardens.