The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Silenus Bust for a Couch

Silenus Bust for a Couch

1–125 CE
bronze
Diameter: 7.8 cm (3 1/16 in.); Overall: 11 cm (4 5/16 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1974.88
Location: 103 Roman

Did You Know?

This silenus’s beard is made up of exactly ten ringlets of curls.

Description

This bust of Silenus was part of the fulcrum or armrest of an ancient Roman couch. Silenus was the tutor and companion of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. He is shown with a long curly beard, bushy eyebrows, and wearing a garland of ivy vines with berries. His deerskin robe, tied by the animal’s hoof, falls off his shoulder, suggesting drunkenness. The bust would have been placed at the base of the armrest where it met the seat of the couch, while an animal head likely decorated the top. As is the case with many Roman objects, Romans adapted their couch style and decoration from the Greeks.
  • Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1974.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 3 (1975): 62–102. Reproduced p. 65, no. 2. www.jstor.org
    “Annual Report for 1974.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 6 (1975): 175–209. p. 179 www.jstor.org
    Barr-Sharrar, Beryl. "Towards a Chronology of the Roman Imperial Decorative Bust" in Toreutik und figürliche Bronzen römischer Zeit: Akten der 6. Tagung über antike Bronzen, 13.-17. Mai 1980. Colloque international sur les bronzes antiques, G.-M. Faider-Feytmans, and Ulrich Gehrig, eds.Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Antikenmuseum, 1984. pp. 41-49. Discussed p. 45-46, Reproduced p. 45, fig. 16
    Kozloff, Arielle P. “Companions of Dionysus.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 7 (1980): 207–19. p. 217-218, figs. 26-27. www.jstor.org
    Barr-Sharrar, Beryl. The Hellenistic and Early Imperial Decorative Bust. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1987. Cat. no. C35, discussed p. 42, reproduced pl. 11.
    Faust, Sabine. Fulcra: figürlicher und ornamentaler Schmuck an antiken Betten. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1989. Cat. no. 83, discussed p. 168-169, reproduced pl. 72-73.
  • The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986).
    Year in Review: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975).
  • {{cite web|title=Silenus Bust for a Couch|url=false|author=|year=1–125 CE|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.88