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Torso of a Satyr

CultureRoman
Date1st - 2nd century C.E.
MediumCarrara marble
DimensionsOverall: 24 × 12 × 8 inches (60.96 × 30.48 × 20.32 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number34-135
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 103
Collections
DescriptionRoman copy of Greek originalGallery Label
The tail on the back of the torso reveals that this is a satyr, a carousing follower of the god of wine, Dionysos. A precise reconstruction of the figure is difficult. The evidence indicates that he was dancing as he snapped his fingers in the air and kept rhythm with a clapper under his right foot. Apparently, a nymph was seated near him preparing to join him in a dance.

Provenance

Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry, 1st Baron Barrymore (1843-1925), Marbury Hall, Cheshire, England, by 1882-1925;

 

By descent to his nephew, Robert Raymond Smith-Barry (1886-1949), Marbury Hall, Cheshire, England, 1925-July 27, 1933;

 

Purchased at his sale, Egyptian, Greek and Roman Antiquities, Sotheby’s, London, July 27, 1933, lot 117, by Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York, stock no. P10037, 1933-1934 [1];

 

Purchased from Brummer by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1934.

 

NOTES:

 

[1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Library and Archives, Brummer Gallery Records, Greek and Roman marbles and stones, Object inventory card number P10037.

Published References

Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (Cambridge: University Press, 1882), 510, no. 22.

 

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 19, fig. 10.

 

Cornelius Vermeule, “Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain,” American Journal of Archaeology 59 (1955): 142. 

           

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 35.

 

Cornelius Vermeule, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), 158, no. 125.

 

Brunilde Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture 1: The Styles of ca. 331-200 B.C. (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), 321, plates 159 a-d.

 

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 119.

 

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 13, fig. 33.
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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