Bacchant

Bacchant

Bacchant die een globe (aarde of hemelgewelf) draagt

BK-2015-2-1

signature and date: ‘ADRIANVS FRIES 1626’

In so far as is known, this is the last sculpture Adriaen de Vries made. It radiates the virtuoso and idiosyncratic style for which he is so justly famous. The pose of the figure is very dynamic and the body is loosely modelled, lending the bronze a certain sketchiness and spontaneity. In this De Vries was far ahead of his time; sculptors would only adopt this exceptional manner of modelling a few centuries later.

Michael Wening, Historico-topographica descriptio Bavariae. Das ist: Beschreibung, deß Churfürsten- und Hertzogthums Ober- und Nidern-Bayrn, deel II, München 1721, p. 21.

• sculptor: Adriaen de Vries (signed by artist), Praag
• brazier: Hans Hilliger, Praag

1626

brons

height 108 cm x width 47.5 cm x depth 58.5 cm

Purchased with the generous support of the Vereniging Rembrandt (and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds), the Stichting Nationaal Fonds Kunstbezit, the BankGiro Lottery, the Rijksmuseum Fonds, the VSBfonds, the Mondriaan Fonds, the Frits en Phine Verhaaff Fonds, the Stichting Beau Lieu et Beaux Arts, the Marjon Ornstein Fonds, the Elles Nansink Fonds, the Familie Verbeek Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds, Henri en Winnie Wientjes, the Rijksmuseum International Circle and private donations

purchase 2015-03-06

Public domain

• Michael Wening, Historico-topographica descriptio Bavariae. Das ist: Beschreibung, deß Churfürsten- und Hertzogthums Ober- und Nidern-Bayrn, deel II, München 1721, p. 21.
• cat. Christie’s New York, Adriaen de Vries’s Bacchic Figure supporting the globe, New York (Thursday 11 December 2014) (separately printed and extended version of the entry in catalogue Christie’s New York, The exceptional sale, 11 December 2014, nr. 10).
• Peter Hecht, ‘Dutch museum acquisitions (2010-2014), supported by the Vereniging Rembrandt’, The Burlington Magazine CLVII, nr. 1343 (feb. 2015), p. 141-142, nr. II.
• Frits Scholten, ‘Just movement: on the significance and reception of Adriaen de Vries’s painterly manner’, Simiolus 40 (2018), p. 150-166.
• Cat. Christie’s London, The exceptional sale, Londen, 7 juli 2011, nr 20.

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200605088