Following models by Johann Heinrich Dannecker

Following models of JOHANN HEINRICH VON DANNECKER (Stuttgart, 1758 - 1841), 19th century.
"Ariadne on a panther".
Sculpture in white marble.
It shows slight wear.
Measurements: 97 x 88 x 35 cm (sculpture); 75 x 87 x 40 cm (base).

Exceptional marble group representing Ariadne mounted on a panther, following the model (also in marble) of Johann Heinrich Dannecker (nowadays conserved in the Liebieghaus museum in Frankfurt). It represents a naked young woman of aristocratic bearing and Greek proportions wearing a crown of vine leaves, since she is the wife of the god of wine Dionysus. She is depicted in a calm attitude and is intended to symbolize "the taming of the wild by beauty". Her shapely and proportioned limbs are adapted to the neoclassical canons in vogue. Ariadne holds an expressively draped cloth in one hand and looks straight ahead. The author endows the flesh with a commendable turgidity and malleability.

Johann Heinrich Dannecker (1758-1841) was a German artist who worked in Stuttgart for the Duke of Württemberg. He was inspired by Greco-Roman pieces. He drew the design of "Ariadne riding a panther" in 1803 and realized it in marble in 1814. It is considered his masterpiece and an outstanding sculpture of the neoclassical movement. Von Dannecker trained with Philipp Jakob Scheffauer (1756-1808). In 1780, he traveled to Paris, Rome, Bologna and Mantua, expanding his sculptural knowledge, and returned to Stuttgart in 1790, where he worked as a teacher at the Hohe Karlsschule until 1794.

Ariadne was the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, kings of Crete who declared war on Athens. In exchange for peace, the Athenians were to send seven young men and seven maidens each year to feed the Minotaur. One year Theseus, the son of the king of Athens, marched voluntarily to free his people from tribute. Ariadne fell in love with him as soon as she saw him, and helped him by giving him a magic sword and a ball of the thread he was spinning, so that he could kill the monster and then find his way out of the labyrinth in which it lived. In return, Theseus was to take Ariadne back to Athens and betroth her. However, according to most sources, the prince abandoned her, leaving her sleeping on the island of Naxos. There she was discovered by Aphrodite, who took pity on her and promised the rest of the gods of Olympus that the young woman would marry a god. Through her intercession she was found by Dionysus, who betrothed her. With him she became the mother of Enopion, the personification of wine, and was ascended to heaven as the constellation Corona Borealis. Ariadne remained faithful to her husband, but was later killed by Perseus on the battlefield of Argos. In other myths, the Cretan princess hanged herself on a tree. However, Dionysus descended into Hades and brought her back, both then joining the gods of Olympus.

In neoclassical art, both in sculpture and in the rest of the arts, there is a conflict resulting from the crossing of permanencies of the baroque tradition, subtle and elegant rococo motifs and novelties that have to do with the real and with the ideal world of the models of classical perfection proposed by Winckelmann and collected by all. Perhaps the key to understanding neoclassicism lies precisely in Winckelmann, in his recommendations to artists to imitate the Greeks in order to become inimitable, and in that other sentence of the Prussian archaeologist according to which the sculptor, and the artist in general, should "sketch with fire and execute with phlegm". Likewise, Diderot advised artists to "paint as they spoke in Sparta", a principle of purification and synthesis that would lead to the tendency towards linear abstraction characteristic of the 1800s. In short, neoclassical sculpture was inspired by the Greco-Latin tradition through different points of view, adopting its principles of order, clarity, austerity, balance and purpose, often with a moralizing background. Based on rationalism, it emphasizes personal development and social progress through strong ethics, elements that blend with the growing scientific interest in classical antiquity as a result of archaeological excavations and the publication of scholarly studies on ancient art and culture. Thus, although classical art was already highly appreciated since the Renaissance, it was in a circumstantial and empirical way, but now this admiration will be built on a more scientific, systematic and rational basis.