Exquisite Italian ‘Grand Tour’ 19th Century Bronze Bust of Dionysus

A superb ‘Grand Tour’ bronze bust, traditionally described as Dionysus (Dionysos), after the original excavated at the Villa of the Papyri in 1754, by the Sabatino and Sons foundry, Naples. Mounted on a faux-porphyry base. Superb quality, original patination.  Alongside the acquisition of knowledge, a major objective of the Grand Tourists was to collect souvenirs of their travels. This included mementos such as paintings and sculpture, coins, antiques and furniture.

Exquisitely sculpted, reflecting the Ancient Greek ideal of beauty. Identical larger busts can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples and on the Island of Capri, Villa San Michele. The history of the original bust, dating from the mid-1st century AD and found in 1754 in the peristyle of the so-called Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, had long been misidentified as Plato, but was, in fact, an upper part of a herm, most likely of Dionysus, and is now preserved at the Naples Archaeological Museum.

Coveted by 19th-century intellectuals and aesthetes, such exquisite objects were not mere decorations, but symbols of their owner’s classical values and refined taste. Further examples graced the rooms of such style and fashion luminaries as Yves Saint Laurent, Pier Luigi Pizzi, and Karl Lagerfeld.

Dimensions:  height 7.0″ x width 3.0″