BACCO E SPERANZA -- Roman antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. BACCO E SPERANZA -- Including PROVENANCE. Gift of The Frederick W. Richmond Foundation, 1990.

Speranza


Statue of BACCO leaning on a female figure ("Hope BACCO")
Restored by Pacetti, Vincenzo
Period: Augustan or Julio-Claudian
Date: 27 B.C.-A.D. 68
Culture: Roman
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: H. 210.2 cm
Classification: Stone Sculpture
Credit Line: Gift of The Frederick W. Richmond Foundation, Judy and Michael Steinhardt, and Mr. and Mrs. A. Alfred Taubman, 1990
Accession Number: 1990.247
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 162

The head of BACCO is ancient but, oddly, from another statue.

Restorations by the eighteenth-century Italian sculptor Vincenzo Pacetti: on BACCO include the  ivy wreath, neck, both arms, lower right leg, calf and boot of left leg, hanging drapery on right side; on the archaistic image of SPERANZA: uplifted corner of drapery, both arms, lower half of lower legs, feet, pedestal, entire base.

This is, typically, a Roman copy of Greek original.

Adaptation of a Greek work of the 4th century B.C.

BACCO, god of wine and divine intoxication, wears a panther skin over his short chiton and his high sandals with animal heads on the overhanging skin flaps.

BACCO stands beside an archaistic female image whose pose and dress imitate those of statues carved in the sixth century B.C.

It is difficult to know whether the original bronze statue of Bacco, of which this is a copy, included the female figure.

Supports in the form of pillars, herms, and small statues were not uncommon in Classical art, but this figure may have been added to support the outstretched arm and may represent Spes, a Roman personification of Hope, who was commonly shown as an archaistic maiden.

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Provenance
1796, March: acquired by Vicenzo Pacetti from the Aldobrandini Palace, Rome.

1796: acquired by Henry Philip Hope from Vicenzo Pacetti

1917, July 23, purchased by Francis Howard from Christie's, London. It remained in the collection of Howard until 1954.

1955: acquired for a private collection in Palm Beach.

1990, July 10: acquired from Sotheby's, New York, gift of The Frederick W. Richmond Foundation, Judy and Michael Steinhardt and Mr. and Mrs. A. Alfred Taubman.
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References:

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"Memorie Enciclopediche Romane sulle belle arti, antichità Ec.", III. P. 91, no. 58.

Hope, T. 1807.
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Waywell, G.B. 1986.
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Ancient Roman Sculptures in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, and A Catalogue of the Ancient Sculptures formerly in the Hope Collection, London and Deepdene. Berlin: Mann, no. 6, pp. 72-3, pl. 49,1.

Sotheby's, New York. Sale cat., June 20, 1990, lot 40.

1991.
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Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year
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Ramage, N. 1999.
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Picon, C. A. et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 429, pp. 369, 489-90.