
In Tate Britain
- Artist
- Frederick William Pomeroy 1856–1924
- Medium
- Bronze
- Dimensions
- Object: 825 × 318 × 381 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Henry J. Pfungst 1898
- Reference
- N01762
Display caption
F.W.Pomeroy RA was a prominent figure in the major revival of sculpture that took place in England from the 1870s onwards. The New Sculpture, as it was called, was particularly notable for a renewed interest in the techniques of bronze casting, coinciding with a rise in popular taste for Italian Renaissance bronzes. Pomeroy is reported to have 'made his mark' with this sculpture when he showed it as a plaster cast at the Royal Academy in 1890. Dionysus was the ancient Greek god of wine, and Pomeroy shows him as a vibrant youth, toasting us with his upheld rhyton, or drinking horn. Dionysus was associated with nature and the animals, and here he stands on a Renaissance style base with animal feet.
Gallery label, August 2004
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Catalogue entry
N01762 DIONYSOS (?) 1890–91
Inscr. ‘ΔIÓNYΣOΣ’ on front of base and ‘F. W. Pomeroy, sc/91’ at back of base on r.
Bronze, 32 1/2×12 1/2×15 (82×31×38).
Presented by Henry J. Pfungst 1898.
Lit: Edmund Gosse, ‘The New Sculpture, 1879–1894’ in Art Journal, 1894, p.308, (?) the plaster repr. p.310; M.H. Spielmann, British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-Day, 1901, p.116.
Repr: (?) the plaster: Studio, XV, 1899, p.84; R.B.S., Modern British Sculpture, n.d. (1939), p.79.
In 1890 Pomeroy exhibited at the R.A. a ‘Dionysos-statuette’ (2080) which may well have been the plaster from which this bronze was subsequently cast. According to Gosse, loc. cit., the original plaster lacked the foliage which serves as a fig-leaf in the bronze, but the reproductions listed above, in which this feature is present, seem to be of a plaster. Another cast, signed and dated 1909, is in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II
Explore
- leisure and pastimes(7,757)
-
- eating and drinking(745)
-
- drinking(269)
- plants and flowers(2,734)
-
- vine(41)
- actions: postures and motions(9,098)
-
- arm / arms raised(834)
- standing(3,134)
- boy(1,160)
- male(960)
- inscriptions(6,698)
-
- Greek text(43)
You might like
-
Sir William Goscombe John Pan
1901 -
Sir Alfred Gilbert Model for ‘Eros’ on the Shaftesbury Memorial, Piccadilly Circus
1891, cast 1925 -
Sir Alfred Gilbert Perseus Arming
1881–3 -
James Havard Thomas Lycidas
1902–8 -
James Havard Thomas Castagnettes No. 2
1900 -
Frederic, Lord Leighton An Athlete Wrestling with a Python
1877 -
Sir Hamo Thornycroft Teucer
1881 -
Frederic, Lord Leighton Needless Alarms
1886 -
Frederic, Lord Leighton The Sluggard
1885 -
Charles Ricketts [no title]
c.1893 -
Sir William Goscombe John A Boy at Play
c.1895 -
Edward Onslow Ford The Singer
exhibited 1889 -
James Havard Thomas Cassandra
c.1912–21 -
James Havard Thomas Thyrsis
1912 -
Mark Gertler Acrobats
1917