"Ariadne asleep". French school, ca. 1810-1815.

"Ariadne asleep". French school, ca. 1810-1815.
Patinated bronze, gilded details.
Marble pedestal.
Measurements: 26,5 x 39 x 14,5 cm: 4 x 40,5 x 17 cm (pedestal).

The reclining Ariadne is inspired by a Greco-Roman model that was repeated with variants, and that spread through the centuries through replicas preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Florence, in the Vatinano and in the Prado. The reclining lady was originally identified as Cleopatra because she wears a snake coiled around her left arm (in reality, it is a bracelet). In the version shown here, the figure lies on a chaise longe with lion paws and chimeras. She rests on a sheet that is draped in playful draperies, just as the tunic folds back to accompany the movement of the legs, which crisscross in search of the best posture. The fine cloth chiton is held in a knot over the right shoulder. The reclining head rests with closed eyes on the back of the hand of his left arm, bent; while the right arm is bent and rests on the head, responding to a characteristic posture of a languid sleeper, frequent in Antiquity. In addition to the aforementioned bracelet, she wears sandals; her hair, divided by a parting in the middle, falls freely on her back and is girded by a ribbon, knotted at the back of her head.

The favorite theme of Hellenistic art was the representation of sleep, and in the neoclassical period it was taken up again in a new version of this type of sculpture. Scholars of this model are unable to determine to what measurements the elements of Dionysian iconography - the ribbon, the attire and the loose hair due to the Bacchic dance, as well as the bracelet in the form of a snake - influenced the representation of Ariadne, so it is not absolutely certain whether the statues of the Prado, Florence and the Vatican refer to a maenad or to Ariadne.