Copy of a Greek relief of ca. 425–400 B.C. attributed to Kallimachos
Maenads were mythical women inspired by the god of wine, Dionysos, to abandon their homes and families and roam the mountains and forests, singing and dancing in a state of ecstatic frenzy. This figure, wearing an ivy wreath and carrying a thyrsos (fennel stalk) bedecked with ivy leaves and berries, moves forward, trancelike, her drapery swirling about her. She was copied from a famous relief of dancing maenads dated to the late fifth century B.C., when Euripides portrayed the manic devotées of Dionysos in his play the Bacchae.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Marble relief with a dancing maenad
Artist:Adaptation of work attributed to Kallimachos
Period:Early Imperial, Augustan
Date:ca. 27 BCE–14 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Marble, Pentelic
Dimensions:H. 56 5/16 in. (143 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1935
Accession Number:35.11.3
[Until 1935, with Alfredo Barsanti, Rome]; acquired in 1935, purchased from A. Barsanti.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1936. "A Relief of a Maenad." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 31(1): pp. 1, 9–12.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1949. "The Classical Contribution to Western Civilization." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 7(8): p. 216.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. pp. 243, 563, fig. 638, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 139, 276–77, pls. 116b, 117b, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. no. 58, pp. 39–40, pls. 50, 51a, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1970. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. New York: Dutton.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. pp. 406, 605, pl. 130b, Cambridge, England.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 50, p. 69, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Touchette, Lori-Ann. 1995. The Dancing Maenad Reliefs: Continuity and Change in Roman Copies, Bulletin Supplement, Vol. 62. no. 27, pp. 75–76, pl. 20b, London: Institute Of Classical Studies.
Onians, John. 1999. Classical Art and the Cultures of Greece and Rome. p. 160, fig. 127, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Milleker, Elizabeth J. 2003. Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Photographic Essay. p. 98, pls. 23–25, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 146, pp. 133, 433, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Koehl, Robert. 2013. Amilla. The Quest for Excellence. Studies Presented to Guenter Kopcke in Celebration of His 75th Birthday pp. 410, 412, 29.1, Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 10, p. 53, New York: Scala Publishers.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. pp. 160, 269, New York: Phaidon Press.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. no. 21, pp. 32, 102–103, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
