Nineteenth-Century European Art - 1 of 9
Aimé Jules Dalou
French, 1838-1902
Bacchus and Ariadne
1894
Marble
82 cm high
Purchased by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1996
1996.3
Notes:
The subject is drawn from ancient myth: Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete, had been abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, only to be consoled by Bacchus, the god of wine. Dalou's figures nevertheless are wholly contemporary, the tangible presence of their anatomies and the sensitive portrayal of their emotions giving the work a vivid sense of the here and now. With their graceful, intertwined poses they are the sculptural equivalent of Bouguereau's painted Nymphs and Satyr.
Sterling Clark liked "all kinds of art, if it is good of its kind." He asserted this principle by simultaneously collecting Impressionist paintings and highly finished Academic paintings. Visitors to the Institute can thus see important paintings by Bouguereau, Gérome, Stevens, and others, alongside pictures by their more vanguard contemporaries. Early nineteenth-century painting is well represented with works by such masters as David, Turner, Goya, and Géricault, and there are numerous fine examples by members of the Barbizon School.
