Description:
A terracotta with lots of character, showing a grumpy looking, frowning old man who has a full beard and a large moustache, wide open eyes, a snub nose and a prominent belly. Given the position of his legs he is depicted seated. Due to his slumped posture the fat of his belly shows a skin fold. As he is nude, his genitals are visible, probably resting on the object on which he is sitting. In his left hand and partly under his arm a kantharos is visible, and his right hand is resting on his leg.
This is most likely Silenos, the god of wine-making and drunken excess, who was the companion and tutor of Dionysos. He was a notorious consumer of wine, and is often depicted with a cup in his hand, as on our object, and usually drunk, so that he had to be carried or supported. He is called the "most drunken of the followers of Dionysus". However, it is also possible that he is one of the sileni, the elderly daimones in the following of Dionysos, fathers of the satyrs and sons of Silenos.
Classical texts do not spare Silenos in their descriptions. He is "staggering, faint with palsied age and wine" (P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses, XI, 90) or "sleeping, flushed, as was his wont, with wine of yesterday; not far aloof, slipped from his head, the garlands lay, and there by its worn handle hung a ponderous cup" (Publius Vergilius Maro, Bucolica - Eclogae VI). In a theatre comedy a pimp called Labrax is compared to "an old Silenos, bald head, snub-nosed, with eyebrows awry, a narrow forehead, a cheating scoundrel, a plague of gods and men, full of vile dishonesty and of iniquity" (Titus Maccius Plautus, Rudens, act 2, scene 2; however, although the physical description fits the image of Silenos, the word used in the Latin text is silanus, which according to some scholars does not refer to Silenos).
Dating:
Circa 4th century B.C.
Size:
Height 9 cm.
Provenance:
Collection van der AA, Belgium, circa 1960; thereafter Galerie Tarantino, Paris.
Condition:
Fragment as shown, with some small losses, some minor surface wear and scratching.
Price:
€ 2,400
Stock number:
C1330