Cleveland Museum of Art

Silenus Bust for a Couch

Date

1–125 CE

Medium

bronze

Culture

Italy, Roman

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This bust of Silenus was part of the fulcrum or armrest of an ancient Roman couch. Silenus was the tutor and companion of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. He is shown with a long curly beard, bushy eyebrows, and wearing a garland of ivy vines with berries. His deerskin robe, tied by the animal’s hoof, falls off his shoulder, suggesting drunkenness. The bust would have been placed at the base of the armrest where it met the seat of the couch, while an animal head likely decorated the top. As is the case with many Roman objects, Romans adapted their couch style and decoration from the Greeks. This silenus’s beard is made up of exactly ten ringlets of curls.

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