![]() There are not many indications that allow giving a precise date, but the careful, soft modelling, and the absence of the drill speak clearly in favor of the first century AD, most probably of the first half of the 1st century (Augustan period?).³Īlso in Antiquity, the statue served most probably as a fountain decoration, with the water flowing out of the wineskin. There are no sharp lines, the skin is moving smoothly, and small details as the little tail in the back and the beard curls (as far as they are still preserved) are worked out with care. The modelling of the statue is of high quality, the muscles that are showing the age of the Silenus first of all on its breast, are worked out with sensibility. The provenance of the piece is unknown, but as most of the replicas of the same type have been found in Rome, there is a good chance that it comes also from the Eternal City or of its surroundings. Served after its discovery for a long time as decoration of a fountain where it has probably been placed in a niche with water flowing down close to its back, a hypothesis that might be further confirmed by the fact that the front was not exposed to rain.2 As this goes back without any doubt to the modern reuse of the statue, it must be therefore an old discovery, made somewhere between the 16th and the 19th century where fountains of this type were popular. The heavy incrustations on the back lead to suspect that the statue ![]() It is impossible to date these different restorations, but the latter one indicates that they are of the modern period, not antique. The tool marks left by the removing of the cement look quite fresh, so that it must not be too long since somebody removed the modern restorations. On the wineskin, the front part and a larger broken part on the left side, as well as some smaller other parts were probably completed in cement that has been removed. Also the left underarm with the elbow had been restored1, while the arm was obviously worked in the original state in one piece with the body, as the tenon on the left hip is showing. Another fixation hole is visible in the right leg the same might be true for the left leg. That the head was originally worked in one part with the body is shown by the end of the beard curls that are still preserved. This is true for the head that had been fixed in a large insertion hole in the neck. The piece had undergone some restorations that unfortunately have been again removed. The piece is showing heavy incrustations on his back, whereas the surface on the front is well preserved. Missing parts: the head, the left underarm with the hand, the left leg, the right knee with the lower leg, some parts of the wineskin. Torso of a marble Silenus with a wineskin on his bent right leg, holding it with his right arm.
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