Anonymous photographer Antique Head of Ariadne, Museo delle Terme, Rome ca. 1880 marble Victoria & Albert Museum |
Richard Cockle Lucas Head of Ariadne ca. 1840-65 elliptical ivory carved in low relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
Minton & Co. (Staffordshire) Ariadne and the Panther 1852 Parian porcelain Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
Minton & Co. (Staffordshire) Ariadne and the Panther (detail) 1852 Parian porcelain Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
"This Parian-ware statuette was produced in 1847 by Minton & Co. for Summerly's Art Manufactures, and remained in production until some time in the 1860s. The composition, modelled by John Bell (1811-1895), is taken from an original life-size marble work by the German sculptor Johann Heinrich Dannecker (1758-1841). Dannecker's sculpture was a popular attraction at Bethmann's Museum in Frankfurt, and became an essential stop on the tourist trail. Due to this, it frequently appeared in English guidebooks, novels and travel narratives, such as Anna Jameson's Sketches from Germany (1832). Though it was one of Minton's first productions for Summerly's, small copies of Ariadne and the Panther were available already as tourist souvenirs in Frankfurt. Minton's production thus followed a well-established precedent. This piece was the inspiration for another Parian-ware production, entirely of Bell's own conception, entitled Una and the Lion. But though Ariadne was available first to consumers, once Una and the Lion was manufactured these two statuettes were swiftly marketed together as companion pieces."
– curator's notes from the Royal Collection
Minton & Co. (Staffordshire) Una and the Lion 1847-49 Parian porcelain Royal Collection, Great Britain |
Doccia Manufactory (Florence) Ariadne dancing, attended by Panther ca. 1780-90 hard-paste porcelain Victoria & Albert Museum |
Doccia Manufactory (Florence) Ariadne dancing, attended by Panther ca. 1790-1810 hard-paste porcelain with enamels Victoria & Albert Museum |
Nicola Giustiniani (Naples) Centrepiece with figures of Bacchus and Ariadne (Venus & Cupid painted inside bowl) ca. 1800-1815 tin-glazed earthenware Victoria & Albert Museum |
Aimé-Jules Dalou Bacchus Consoling Ariadne ca. 1892 plaster statuette Art Institute of Chicago |
"Aimé-Jules Dalou was a protégé of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and spent his early years studying the art of the 18th century. His first success came with images of modern life, such as nursing mothers and infants, but he later undertook allegorical subjects and historical statues for public commissions in France's Third Republic. His sculpture Bacchus Consoling Ariadne revisits the small-scale world of Clodion's mythological terracottas. The plaster was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1892, and a marble based on it [directly below] was commissioned by a family named Drapé in Agen, France."
– curator's notes from the Art Institute of Chicago
Aimé-Jules Dalou Bacchus Consoling Ariadne ca. 1894 marble statuette Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts |
Aimé-Jules Dalou Bacchus Consoling Ariadne ca. 1892 bronze statuette Art Institute of Chicago |
Corneille van Cleve Bacchus and Ariadne ca. 1704 bronze statuette Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Palace of the Legion of Honor) |
Giuseppe Piamontini Bacchus and Ariadne ca. 1730-40 bronze statuette Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, sits in a rocky landscape with his wife, Ariadne. He holds grapes and a wine cup, while she squeezes grapes into a ewer of wine at her side. She wears the golden crown – set with red gems to look like roses – that Bacchus gave her upon their marriage. In addition to this bronze, Piamontini also created a large marble group of the same composition, signed and dated 1732, now in a private collection. The sculptor arranged the two figures not to be seen from all sides but primarily from a single viewpoint in front. Despite the shallowness of the composition, the figures gracefully twist on their axes. Ariadne in particular assumes the form of a corkscrew, with her knees bending to her right and her shoulders swinging to the left. As was characteristic of sculpture at this time, the figures' bodies are much more expressive than their faces, which are emotionally blank. Porcelain copies of this group were produced by the Ginori Porcelain Manufactory at Doccia."
– curator's notes from the Getty Museum
Jean-Baptiste Clésinger Ariadne on a Panther 1873 bronze statuette Cleveland Museum of Art |