A Bacchante (?)
XVII century. Marble.Not on display
This was part of a series of decorative reliefs with the heads of fauns or maenads. Some wear a wreath with bunches of grapes. Drawings of fifteen of these reliefs appear in the album of the Marquis of el Carpio´s collection with round frames and a foot, as if they were designed to be placed on a cornice or console. Barrón (1908) catalogued them as Italian works from between the16th and 17th centuries, while Tormo (1948) considered them to be from antiquity. Blanco (1957) thought the were Renaissance works. In fact, they were made in a Roman workshop during the second half of the 17th century, and they recall the style of stucco works derived from models by G. L. Bernini, such as the Saved Soul and the Condemned Soul at the Palazzo di Spagna in Rome. They more directly recall a Bacchante´s head attributed to Bernini at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. Finally, there is a relief with a faun´s head from this same series at the La Granja Palace, on a base of the sort that appears in the Marquis´s album (Text from Coppel Aréizaga, R.: Catálogo de la escultura de época Moderna: siglos XVI-XVIII, Museo del Prado, 1998, p. 296).