Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 21. 1981 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1984)

Bronzes romains figurés et appliqués et leurs problémes techniques. Actes du VIIe Colloque International sur les bronzes antiques - Barr-Sharrar, B.: Two Roman decorative busts in the Metropolitain Museum, New York. p. 25–29. t. X–XV.

second century A.D. Roman versions of the Silenus bust, of which the Metropolitan bust is one of a number of surviving examples, lie at least two centuries of changing stylistic interest. Of 35 selected Silenus busts which can be dated within these centuries, I have chosen nine to demonstrate the origigins of the Metropolitan bust and those which may be grouped with it, some of which are included here. A bust in the British Museum (PL X, 3) (WALTERS 1899, no. 1376), also small

—nine and eight-tenths centrimeters high — may be only somewhat later than the Delos bust. While of somewhat more subdued expression, it has obvious stylistic affinities. The face is leaner, and the features less sharply modeled than those of the Delos bust, but the diagonally-set eyes, the slightly open mouth, and the beard curls modeled of strong rectangular forms which taper to points as they splay out over the chest, as well as the long moustaches, are the same. A date in the late second or early first century B.C. for the British Museum bust is further substantiated by its comparison to a mould for Silenus masks found in a first century B.C. level in South Russia. (Height of mould 6,5 cm. See BCH, XCVIII, 1974, 929, fig. 17). The mould shares characteristics with both the British Museum and Delos busts, notably the arched, linear eyebrows, the steep planes of the face,and the open mouth, all of which add much to the fierce expression. These Silenus images from the late second or early first century B.C. are truly daemonic in appearance, their pathos suggesting some inner and tragic recognition of their own supernatural state, an expression which intensifies the meaning of their visible daemonic traits. A comparison of these creatures to the little Silenus who sleeps restlessly on the shoulder of the Derveni kráter is instructive to a consideration of the late Classical origins of this aspect of their nature. Chronologically between such Hellenistic busts and the later Roman material represented by the Metropolitan bust are several Silenus busts from Pompeii. One of the finest examples is a bust in the Naples Museum (Inv. 72862. Height 11cm). (Pl.X,4). This Pompeiian Silenus thrusts his head and one shoulder forward in a manner similar to the Delos Silenus, and his gaze is almost as intense. In subsequent examples of the decorative bust

—among Silenoi as well as all characters rendered in this form

—that thrusting movement is considerably reduced as the figure lifts its head for a very different effect. This difference may be seen in the Metropolitan bust. The workmanship of this Pompeiian piece is superior, all details executed with great care and attention. The pupils are deeply incised, probably originally inlaid. The brow is furrowed, but without the high arched eyebrows of the Delos and related busts. The nose is large and flat. The corkscrew curls now form a greater mass, as

—with a few exceptions

—they do in Silenus busts from this time on. The curls are closer together and not splayed apart; the tapering ends are reduced in length. The garland of vines on the bald head is twisted into a loose knot at the front in what becomes a traditional headdress, with two corymbs placed at the forehead and two more on the top of the head beyond. The goat skin is tied on the right shoulder with a small cloven hoof falling from the knot. The head of the Silenus is modeled fully in the round, and the area of the back by which the bust was fixed to the fulcrum attachment is oval. In the sober intensity of its glance and the feeling for three-dimensional mass which is considerably greater than in later examples, together with the dynamic slanting of the body axis, this bust reveals a relationship to the probably only somewhat earlier examples from Delos and of unknown origin in the British Museum. Yet in its details, such as dress and corkscrew beard, as well as its general physiognomy, it might be said to be a model for classicising busts which may immediately follow it in chronology, as well as the prototype for the later Silenoi, such as the Metropolitan example, which imitate its pathos with theatrical expression. This piece has all the characteristics in the design of its details which typify the Silenus bust from this point on. It can safely be placed, I believe, into the first century B.C.; it is probably pre-Augustan, but not neccessarily. A Silenus bust in the Hermitage (Mercklin 1933, 94, figs. 9a

—b; GORBUNOVA 1973, cover and 93, no. 228; Venedikov 1960, pl. 55B, fig. 195) (PL XI, 1) found with another similar to it (PL XI, 2/in. a grave mound in Bulgaria (Patusa) with contents which could be dated to the late second to early third century A.D., has characteristics similar to the Pompeiian bust, but is without the shift in body axis and the slight thrust of the head which give such energetic expression to that earlier one. These two busts, which differ substantially in quality, are distinctly more classicising than the Pompeiian example. They have symmetrical axes and reserved and upright postures. Their expression of pathos follows the Hellenistic pattern, but here it is carefully rendered by linear means rather than modeled forms. These busts were decorations for a funeral wagon, and at least one of them

—the better of the two

—was clearly converted for this purpose by the addition of a socket soldered into a cutting in the back to fit over the rectangular end of the wagon pole (PL XI,3)

. Given their size and shape, and the fact that the two are designed in mirror symmetry, as they would be as matching fixtures on opposite sides of a kline, it is probable that these busts were originally inspired by fulcrum attachments. The conversion of the one bust for use on the funerary wagon could have taken place considerably after its initial manufacture, the second bust designed at that time to match it. Its fine workmanship and silver inlaid eyes suggests it made as a luxury items. It could have been a family heirloom reused for funerary purposes. Its classicising appearance, in combination with its delicately decorative vitality, suggests that it could be Augustan. Within a selective collection of 50 Silenus busts which may be placed in a chronology from the second half of the second century B.C. until perhaps somewhat beyond the middle of the second century A. D., there are none of this appearance and quality which can with any certainty be dated to Hadrianic times. Two satyr boys in the National Museum of Copenhagen (Inv. 8690; and 8691. Height of both 11,5 cm.) (8690 PL XV, 2) were also found in Bulgaria (Mogilov) with pieces of horse harness. In this case the sockets for the wagon poles are integral to the cast pieces, that is, they were 26