Silenus as an Atlas Figure, Fourth Figure
Unknown · Second century AD (?)
The fourth of the Silenus supports, and at two metres twenty-eight the tallest, is a torso that has lost its pillar entirely: the whole back support is gone, along with both arms except two fingertips, the right leg from the groin and the left leg from mid-thigh. What remains is the ancient body, hairy and infibulated, with the hair knotted over the forehead and one hand resting on the hip, exactly the pose of the other three. Look at the nose, which is chipped, and at the surface of the marble, cleaned in 1989, which reads more clearly than on its stained companions.
The missing parts were supplied in marble by restorers so that the four figures could stand as a set. Without its pillar this one shows best how the sculptor treated the body as a free-standing statue even though it was meant to carry an entablature. The four were seized in Rome in 1803 during the Napoleonic transfers and have stood together at the Louvre ever since, now in the former riding hall of the palace. They date from the second century and come from a building whose porch or courtyard they once supported.
Did You Know? This torso lost the pillar it once leaned on, so it now stands like a statue rather than a column.
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