Fragmentary Relief with Dionysos and a Female Follower in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, January 2018

A maenad holding a wine pitcher and Dionysos with panther skin
Roman
Imperial Period, Hadrianic
about A.D. 120

Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens

Medium/Technique: Marble from Mt. Pentelikon near Athens

Dimensions Overall: 79 x 58cm (31 1/8 x 22 13/16in.)
Mount (3/16" thick contoured steel base plate/two side securement tabs): 0.5 x 65.6 x 10.2 cm (3/16 x 25 13/16 x 4 in.)

Credit Line: Museum purchase with funds donated by Moses Alpers, Mrs. Harvey H. Bundy, Mrs. William H. Claflin III, Joseph Edinburgh, Mrs. Laurence B. Ellis, Mr. and Mrs. De Coursey Fales, Jr., Dr. Ernest Kahn, Dr. Josephine Murray, Mrs. Benjamin Rowland, Jr., Adrian Vermeule, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Weld, and Dr. Leonard Wolsky

Accession Number: 1984.19

Collections: Ancient Greece and Rome

Classifications: Sculpture

Catalogue Raisonné: Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), no. 032.

Description: The marble relief depicts a maenad identified by the fawn skin over her left shoulder and the giant fennel staff (thyrsos) in her left hand, which is partially concealed by the torso of the male figure. She holds a wine pitcher her right hand as if to pour its contents into the two-handled cup (kantharos) held by Dionysos who carries the skin of a leopard over his left arm, waits to receive his drink from his special vessel, suggesting that the maenad is taking part in the ritual entertainment of the god (theoxenia). From myth, we know that Erigone, the daughter of Ikarios – the first man to learn the skill of wine-making from Dionysos – gave hospitality (xenia) to the god, for which she was gifted a fawn skin, thereby initiating her into the Dionysiac cult.

Scientific Analysis:
Harvard Lab No. HI749: Isotope ratios - delta13C +2.46 / delta18O -6.41, Attribution - Pentelikon, Justification - White, fine grained marble.

Provenance: Before 1928, Alessandro Jandolo, Rome [see note 1]. Private collection, England [see note 2]. 1971, Connaught Gallery, London [see note 3]. Possibly Avery Brundage (b. 1887 - d. 1975), Chicago [see note 4]. 1978, Münzen und Medaillen, Basel. By 1983, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York; 1984, sold by Sotheby Parke Bernet to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 18, 1984)

NOTES:
[1]As indicated on a card in the archives of John Marshall (who died in 1928): marshall.bsr.ac.uk/archive/search/NDM2/show/436 (many thanks to Jörg Deterling for this reference). [2]According to information supplied by curator Cornelius Vermeule at the time of its purchase, this sculpture was shown at Spink and Son, London during the 1950s, and had belonged to the British branch of an old aristocratic Sicilian family. It was then with various collectors and dealers in London. [3] Advertised in Apollo, October 1971 (many thanks to Jörg Deterling for this reference). [4] According to curatorial notes, which have not been substantiated, this ownership history was given by Münzen und Medaillen, Catalogue of 1978 Basel Antiquities Fair, cat. no. 310.


Text from: collections.mfa.org/objects/150263/a-maenad-holding-a-wine-pitcher-and-dionysos-with-panther-sk