SILENI / Destinati a sostenere una tazza di fontana

Luigi Agricola

From the seventh and final volume of Italian conservator Ennio Quirino Viconti's Il Museo Pio-Clementino, which documents and details the collection of Roman antiquities in the Pio-Clementino Museum, now a part of the Vatican Museums. The tomes were illustrated by several dozen artists. The title of this piece loosely translates to "Sileni - intended to support a fountain cup" and it is unclear if the fountain still exists.

Sileni refers to the satyr Silenus, an ancient Greek god of the forest who took in and tutored Dionysus when Zeus needed his son to be protected. Celebrated as much for his wine-making and drunkenness as for his age and wisdom (considered the oldest satyr in Greek mythology), later depictions of Silenus - as with this fountain, whose style dates to about the 2nd century AD - often depicted him as a snub-nosed, round-bellied human holding goblets or large wineskins, as seen here.

The genuflected figures are Sileni holding a cup, or crater. The three elderly figures on their knees represent Silenus, the educator and teacher of Bacchus, who, with their shoulders equipped with a wineskin full of liquids, support a large podded cup.

Inserted in the work "The Pio-Clementino Museum" described by Ennio Quirino Visconti, Member of the National Institute of France and of the Legion of Honor conservation of antiquities in the Napoleon museum in Paris - Seventh volume - Dedicated to the Holiness of Our Lord PIO SEVENTH Pontifex Maximus. Published by Gasparre Gapparone, gem sculptor in the street of S. Silvestro in Capite N° 42. In Rome MDCCCVII with Pontifical Privilege..