Young Bacchus
Workshop of Pietro da Barga, Italian, active 1574 - 1588
about 1580
Bronze
Overall: 11 7/8 × 4 3/16 × 3 11/16 in. (30.2 × 10.7 × 9.3 cm)
Weight: 1092 g (2.4 lb.)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Roger Arvid Anderson Collection; acquired through a gift from Evelyn A. and William B. Jaffe, Class of 1964H, by exchange
2016.63.8
Geography
Place Made: Italy, Europe
Period
1400-1600
Object Name
Sculpture
Research Area
Sculpture
On view
Label
The objects on this table evoke an early modern collector’s home—perhaps a studiolo in the Italian peninsula or a cabinet or Kunstkammer north of the Alps. Between 1400 and 1750, Europeans lived with, and expressed themselves through, sculpture. Three-dimensional and tactile, sculpture was regularly handled and moved, and spaces for exhibition in the early modern home facilitated active engagement with these works.
The sculptures in this grouping relate to the 15th- and 16th-century interest in Humanism, a tradition of learning with roots in Greek and Roman sources that emphasizes agency and inquiry. Sculptures of classical subjects like Arion or biblical ones like Eve could serve as prompts for conversation and debate about morality, philosophy, and literature. In this way, collections offered social spaces that connected friends, scholars, and rivals.
From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art, and Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections
Course History
HIST 43.02, European Intellectual and Cultural History 1400-1800, Darrin McMahon, Fall 2019
ARTH 27.02, Living Stone: Sculpture in Early Modern Italy, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Winter 2022
HIST 43.02, European Intellectual History 1400-1800, Darrin McMahon, Fall 2022
History 42.01, Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies 22.01, Gender & European Society, Patrick Meehan, Spring 2024
History 96.39, Saints and Relics, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Spring 2024
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Noemi Perego, Spring 2024
Italian 11.01, Intensive Italian, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024
Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024
Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Tania Convertini, Spring 2024
Italian 3.02, Introductory Italian III, Giorgio Alberti, Spring 2024
Exhibition History
European Bronzes from the Collection of Roger Arvid Anderson, Class of 1968, Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985, Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 19, 1996-June 22, 1997, no. 33.
Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.
Publication History
Roger Arvid Anderson, The Roger Arvid Anderson Collection, Medals, Medallions, Plaquettes and Small Reliefs, Paintings, Sculpture, Works on Paper and Textiles, San Francisco: Roger Arvid Anderson (published privately), design by David L. Wilson, 2015, p. 270.
Leo Planiscig, Collezione Camillo Castiglioni, Catalogo dei Bronzi, Vienna, no. 71, 1923.
Leo Planiscig, Die ronzeplastiken, Statuietten, Reliefs, Gerate und Plaketten, Kunsthistoriesches Museum in Wien, 1924, abb. 242, h. 23.7 cm (once in the Guido von Rho Collection, cat. Braun XVb.)
R. Varese, Placchette e bronzi nelle Civiche Collezioni, Ferrara, 1974-75, no. 148.
Natur und Antike in der Renaissance, Liebighaus, Frankfurt, exhibition catalogue, 1986, no. 135, pp. 437-38, h. 24.5 cm with wooden socle.
Trinity Fine Art, Old Master Drawings and European Works of Art, at Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1994, no. 48, h. 21.5 cm. partial gilt.
Provenance
Camillo Castiglioni (1879-1957) Collection, Vienna, before 1925; sold Frederik Muller & Co., Amsterdam, 18 November 1925, lot no. 71; possibly with Trinity Fine Art, Old Master Drawings and European Works of Art, at Newhouse Galleries, New York, New York, 1994, no. 48; Roger Arvid Anderson, San Francisco, California about 1995; lent to present collection,1995; sold to present collection, 2016.
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