Dionysus Sardanapalus

This heavily draped marble figure (2nd c.) is a Hellenistic-Roman Neo-Attic variant of Dionysus misnamed after the Assyrian king Sardanapalus by a 17th-c. restorer of a copy in the Vatican Museums. The god’s long archaic-style beard, ivy wreath, and enveloping himation (cloak) evoke an earlier, solemn divine prototype. The raised right arm once held a thyrsus (ivy-twined staff), now lost. The archaising style reflects Roman taste for erudite reworkings of Classical Greek sculpture.