Combe, Taylor [Hrsg.]: A description of the collection of ancient Marbles in the British Museum: with engravings (Band 11) (London, 1861)

PLATE V.

BUST OF BACCHUS.

Bust of Bacchus, crowned with a broad diadem, and the hair
flowing down in ringlets. It was originally considered to repre-
sent Apollo, and as such has been compared by Mr. Combe with
the head of a statue engraved in the Museum Capitolinum.(1)
It is, however, much more likely that it really belonged to a
statue of the youthful Bacchus. Neither the character of the
countenance, nor the peculiar dressing of the hair, before and be-
hind the head, recall in any wray the ordinary features and type of
Apollo. The expression is that of the youthful Dionysus, as de -
veloped by Praxiteles and his School; conceived at that phase of
adolescence when the face is almost feminine ;(2) with the hair
parted on the forehead, and flowing softly down in long ringlets
on the back of the neck; an arrangement which adds to the
generally feminine character of the features. This bust has the
fullness of face, and much of the expression, commonly given to
the presumed portraits of Antinous.

The broad band round the head may be considered as the most
general characteristic of the statues of Bacchus.(3) Indeed, Pliny
especially states that Bacchus was considered to have been the

1 Tom. i. tav. 14.

2 Ntrjvfy clvSpi ioik^, Homer, Hymn vi. 3. Clarac, PI. 684., No. 1603 A., No. 1601;
PI. 685, No. 1605; PI. 692, No. 1031.

3 Mus. Marbl. ii. PI. 19, 29, 30. Gerhard, Berlins antike Bildwerke, p. 372, who
remarks that the diadem of Bacchus became in later times the stephane of Juno.

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