Silenus with the Infant Bacchus

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Date:
4th century BC

Type:
Statue

Materials:
Bronze, granite

Measurements:

Inscription:
On front of granite plinth inscribed: "SILEN/MED/BACCHUSBARNET"

Owner:
Copenhagen Municipality

Donated by:
The Albertina Foundation

Prework:
The bronze cast was made after a Roman copy in the Louvre in Paris, inv. no. MA 922. The no longer surviving Hellenist original was probably executed by Lysippus.

Address:
The Ørsted Park

Recommended litterature:
Ellinor Wesche: Friluftskunsten i København, København 1932, 52. Charles Haugbøll: Ørstedsparken, København 1933, 30, 40-41, 49. Monumenter Mindesmærker og Statuer i København Frederiksberg og Gjentofte, København 1944, 30. Legatet 'Albertina'. I anledning af legatets 80 aars dag den 18. november 1959, København 1959, 7-8, 10. Hovedstadens monumenter mindetavler museer. En vejviser, København 1962, 66. Bent Zinglersen: Københavnske monumenter og mindesmærker, København 1974, 221-22. Jens Peter Munk: Bronze & granit. Monumenter i Københavns Kommune, København 2005, 166

We have more litterature about this monument - please contact us

The god of wine, Dionysus or Bacchus, spent his childhood in the Nysa Mountains among silenuses and nymphs. A naked, bearded, ivy-wreathed silenus is carrying the child Dionysus in his arms. The child is grasping at the beard of the silenus, who is leaning against a tree trunk around which are twined vines and a snake.

The silenuses were forest demons in Greek mythology. This silenus, who brought up and taught Bacchus, was a Phrygian god of water and fertility. King Midas mixed wine in the spring from which the silenus drank, so that he became drunk and fell asleep, on which he was abducted. As a reward for Bacchus getting him back, everything that Midas touched turned to gold.