Description
Plaster cast of a relief depicting a Maenad, attributed to Callimachus. Original is a Roman copy (120–140 CE) of a Greek original (late 5th century BCE), housed in the Museo del Prado, Spain.
Publication Date
1978
Type of Artwork
Relief
Time Period/Geographical Region
Ancient Greece
Height (cm/in)
154.94 cm / 61 in
Width (cm/in)
76.2 cm / 30 in
Depth (cm/in)
13.97 cm / 5.5 in
Disciplines
Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity | Sculpture
Recommended Citation
Morehead State University. Camden-Carroll Library., "Dancing Maenad (Relief II)" (1978). Metropolitan Museum of Art Cast Collection. 35.
https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/metropolitan_art_collection/35
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Comments
A Maenad is a female follower of Dionysus, the God of wine, orchards, fruit, vegetation, fertility, ritual madness, and theater. The followers of Dionysus would often be seen in a state of frenzy from imbibing too much of the God’s supply of wine! The frenzy gives the female followers their names Maenad, which translates to “mad woman.”
This relief is a plaster cast of a Roman copy of a Greek original relief that was either made for the base of a cult statue of Dionysos or for a choragic monument associated with the first performance of The Bacchae written by Euripides c. 405 BCE. The reliefs originally were painted in bright, vivid colors.
Four of the fifth-century reliefs were later copied by a Roman artist c. 120-140 CE. These Roman copies are now housed in the Museo Del Prado in Madrid. The Morehead State cast was produced in 1936 to help restore another fragmented Roman original relief of the same Maenad type purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Maenad wears an ivy wreath and sheer fabric that clings to her body and flows easily with her movements. She is holding a thyrsus, the sacred staff of Dionysus, which consists of a giant fennel topped with ivy leaves and berries to reference fertility and abundance.