Dionysus, called Narcissus

Dionysus, called Narcissus () is a bronze ancient Roman statuette, created between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. It is believed to be a Roman copy of an ancient Greek original from the 4th century BC, created by an artist of the school of Praxiteles. Discovered in Pompeii in 1862, the statuette became one of the most popular finds to emerge from excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum in the course of the nineteenth century.

Discovery and identification The work was discovered in 1862 in the house now known as the Casa di Narcisso or the House of the Statue of Narcissus. The Illustrated London News in 1864 reported that "the figure of Narcissus has been greatly admired for the grace of its proportions and the anatomical correctness of its forms, more especially evident in the back view."

It is now is in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples (Inv. 5003).Kuivalainen (2021), pp. 219–220. It has been called the "pearl" of the museum’s collectionsMonaco (1883), p. 68. and described as "the most splendid antique masterpiece extant...It surpasses in beauty all the other sculptures that come from Pompeii."Conforti (c. 1899), p. 10.

It depicts a slender ephebe gazing downward and standing in a contrapposto pose. He wears only an ivy crown with grapes on his head, a nebris (goat’s skin) tied with a knot on left shoulder, and sandals on his feet. It was initially identified as a statue of Narcissus, the mythical youth who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool (thus the downward gaze). But the grapes, ivy crown, and nebris are attributes of Dionysus/Bacchus, god of wine, and the statue is now generally identified as Dionysus.

Ilkka Kuivalainen in 2021 further suggested that "the male’s apparel and the position of the right-hand fingers identifies the bronze as Bacchus dangling a bunch of grapes above a panther. The iconographic formula is also known from wall paintings in Pompeii...the original base has been replaced and the panther is lost." Kuivalainen's thesis also accounts for the statue's downward gaze.

Cultural diffusion

The Dionysus was the last ancient statue discovered in Italy to enjoy great fame and also to become extensively copied.Haskell and Penny (1981), pp. 271-72, no. 64, fig. 141. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, copies in bronze became a standard product for the Neapolitan foundries that specialized in so-called Grand Tour reproductions from Pompei and Herculaneum, including De Angelis, the Fonderie Artistiche Riunite, the Chiurazzi foundry, and the foundry of Giorgio Sommer, who extensively photographed the original and used a mold created by Neapolitan sculptor Vincenzo Gemito in 1885.di Giacomo (1905), Appendix p. vi. "Gemito spent longer making his copy of the Narcissus than he would generally do on his own original works: the sensitive artist fell in love with the sculpture’s composed and elegant purity...When placed beside the original, this wonderful copy could deceive even the greatest experts."di Giacomo (1905), pp. 129-30.)

Copies of the statuette were collected by notable members of the homosexual subculture, including Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his brother Modest, whose copy can be seen at the Tchaikovsky State House-Museum; Oscar Wilde, who displayed a bronze copy on the mantelpiece at 34 Tite Street in Chelsea);Ellmann (1988), p. 257. Wilhelm von Gloeden, whose copy—sometimes with a broken arm—can be seen in a number of his photographs of male nudes; and Eduard von Mayer and Elisar von Kupffer, who each in 1930 sat for a photograph at with a copy of the Dionysus in the background.

Since at least 1882, a copy of the Dionysus on a pedestal has been the focal point of the vestibule of Leighton House, the historic home and studio of the painter and aesthete Frederic, Lord Leighton in Holland Park, London.Dumas (1882), p. 20.

The Dionysus inspired works of ekphrasis by both the Russian poet Vyacheslav Ivanov (1904)Gryakalova (2016) and Gryakalova (2018). and the American playwright Tennessee Williams (1948).Williams, Tennessee, "Testa Dell'Efebo," Harper's Bazaar, August, 1948.McDonough (September 2011) recounts Williams' acquisition of a replica of the Dionysus in Naples in 1948 with a Chiurazzi foundry mark (now missing a finger), and analyzes the poem at length. Williams' poem was later set to music by Paul Bowles.

Gallery

References

Bibliography Conforti, Louis (c. 1889). The National Museum of Naples, Naples: c. 1899. di Giacomo, Salvatore (1905). Vincenzo Gemito: la vita, l'opera, Naples: 1905. Dumas, F. G. (1882). Illustrated Biographies of Modern Artists, Paris: Baschet, 1882.

Ellmann, Richard (1988). Oscar Wilde, Knopf: 1988. Gryakalova, N. Yu. (2016). "From Ekphrasis to Intertext: regarding the poem by Vyacheslav Ivanov, 'Narcissus, Pompeian Bronze'" (in Russian; includes text of the poem), pp. 114–123. Gryakalova N. Yu. (2018). "Narcissus versus Dionysus: regarding the poem by Vyacheslav Ivanov, 'Narcissus, Pompeian Bronze': visual artifact, literary topic and prospects of intertextual analysis" (in Russian), Intertextual analysis: principles and limits, edited by A. A. Karpov and A. D. Stepanov, СПб: СПбГУ, pp. 132–141. ISBN 978-5-288-05780-9.

Monaco, Domenico (1883). A Complete Handbook to the National Museum in Naples, 3rd edition, London: 1883.

External links

Tennessee Williams reads aloud his poem "Testa Dell'Efebo" (here called "A Fable") about his own copy of the Dionysus in this recording of a 1982 presentation at the 92nd Street Y in New York City (poem begins at 00:04:51, with text in the transcript). Tennessee Williams' poem "Testa Dell'Efebo" set to music By Paul Bowles and sung by Andrew White, baritone.