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.

in smooth, curling locks all over his head, with a starshaped pattern at the crown. There is a lock pulled forward in an artificial manner in front of each ear, and longer locks fall on his neck behind his ears. The face is almost square in shape with broad cheeks and a small chin. The slight frown on the face is achieved by the contraction of the brows. Below the knotted goat skin is a pattern of short lines indicating body hair. Both the Metropolitan bust and the closely related Bulgarian bust are well-produced, sonewhat cold and unanimated works. The distance of these two satyr busts from their Hellenistic prototype in terms of torsion or even movement of the body, as well as the lack of expression of any kind of pathos, makes a post-Pompeiian date probable for their production. Their cool classicising quality suggests the first half of the second century A.D. It is very likely that the Metropolitan bust was, like the Bulgarian example, a wagon ornament. It was designed for a flat surface, however, as there is no rectangular fixture on the back. The satyr bust from the Madhia shipwreck (Bardo Museum, Tunis, Inv. F 247/8; Height 11 cm; FUCHS 1963, Taf. 47; Greifenhagen 1968, no. 11; Neugebauer 1932, 33—35) (PL XIII, 4) usually dated to the end of the second century B.C. can serve to suggest the original conception of the satyr bust. The great differences between the Hellenistic bronze and the classicising Metropolitan bust are clear. The simple expression of exuberant joy in the face of the Madhia satyr, found also in a satyr bust from Delos (Sieben 1973, fig. 8) (PLXIV, I), dated contextually—like the Delos Silenus

—to no later than 69 B.C., recalls the faces of the nymph and satyr from some versions of the Invitation to the Dance. These two busts seem representative of the species at the end of the second to early first century B.C. Less fussy in detail, displaying smoother modeling of larger planes, but related in feeling, is a satyr boy bust found in Worms, now in the Hessisches Museum in Darmstadt (Height 12,6 cm; dated to the second half of the second century A.D. in the catalogue of an exhibition in the Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne, 1967, 241 : С 186 and Taf. 86) (PI. XIV, 2). Given its place of origin, this is undoubtedly an Imperial piece, but it may perhaps be dated as early as the second half of the first century B.C. Comparison to the Delos bust shows a somewhat more subdued but similar expression, more idealized in the Darmstadt satyr, but alike anough to suggest that this bust should not be dated in the second half of the second half of the second century A.D., as it has been previously. Such a date would place it chronologically some time after the Metropolitan bust, which seems unlikely. To fill out the chronology of the satyr boy bust, four more examples may be cited. Possibly Augustan or somewhat later is a satyr bust from Pompeii (Naples National Museum, Inv. 5295; Height, 11 cm.) (Naples National Museum, no inv. no.: Height, 8 cm.) (PI. XIV, 3). It has the smooth planes of Augustan classicizing tendencies, and a serene expression. Perhaps contemporary to it, in appearance somewhat provincial, is a satyr boy with arms modeled in the round, also from Pompeii (PL XIV, 4) .In the crook of his arm, the Dionysiac boy holds a loop of his goat skin filled with a collection of fruits. In his right hand he holds a kantharos. Comparison of the Metropolitan satyr bust to this one is instructive, and suggests the origins of its gestures and attributes. In expression and general demeanor, the Pompeiian bust resembles the silver bust of Dionysus in a patera from Boscoreale in the Louvre which, like this piece, may be Tiberian. The classicising aspects of the Metropolitan bust are of a very different order. In its cool, linear modeling of short hair locks and other details, a satyr boy bust in the British Museum (Inv. 1412: Height 14.5 cm.) Said to be from Torre Annunziata, probably from Pompeii. Catalogue, Pompeii A.D. 79. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 20 November 1976, 27 February 1977, no. 181) (PL XV, 1) has affinities with the bronze herms of satyrs from the Nemi shipwreck. The modeling of the face with its small pointed chin, smooth brow, and heavy eyelids, however, is not the same. Details such as the gathering of fruit suspended on the surface of the bust without the visible support of an arm or hand, as well as the flatness of the bust and the addition of the animal head on the left shoulder are distinctive. Such details

—which suggest a greater concern for the decorative, achieved by what might be termed impressionistic rather than organically consistent means

—may indicate a Claudian or Neronian date. Although the quality is inferior, nevertheless in terms of style, the attachment now in the National Museum in Copenhagen (PL XV, 2) — compared above to the Silenus in Leningrad (PL XI, 1)—is a pertinent comparison to the Metropolitan bust. The modeling of the Copenhagen bust is manifestly drier, and the bust itself is flatter than the New York satyr, but the classicising aspects of stiff frontality and somber expression in both these works makes it very likely that they are contemporary products of the first half of the second century A.D. The two busts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, then, represent two points in the demise of the decorative bust. The Silenus bust marks the stylistic end of the Hellenistic tradition as it was continued into Imperial times; the satyr bust is a fine representative of the end of the purely Roman implementation of the same tradition. 28