Roman Marble Statue of a Youthful Bacchus

Ca. 1st Century AD. A headless boy standing with weight on his proper left leg, right one slightly flexed and trailing behind. The figure is nude except for a long goatskin draped over his shoulders and enveloping his entire back down to the level of the knees. At the front the animal skin is laden with grapes and vine leaves. the boy clutches the bunch of fruit against his torso. The tree trunk support along the figure’s left leg is embellished with a snake curving up and down the front. At the back of the statue the smooth animal skin terminates in a careful rendered goats head and hoof, - an unexpected calligraphic detail that was presumably hardly visible in the sculptures original setting in antiquity.A number of Graeco-Roman mythological characters are shown carrying all kinds of fruit, symbol of the harvest and of abundance. Older bearded males thus represented are usually identified as Sylvanus (the Roman god of woods and uncultivated lands), whereas the youthful bearded ones a