Bacchus

This ancient torso, whose additions by Lambert-Sigisbert Adam the Elder turned it into a figure of Bacchus, was from the collection of Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661–1741), the influential French ambassador to the Vatican and great admirer of classical antiquity who had organized numerous excavations in the vicinity of Rome. After de Polignac’s death, Frederick the Great bought the cardinal’s collection, which numbered three hundred items. The identity of this torso has not been clearly established; it has been seen as a replica of the Westmacott Ephebe, or alternatively of Praxiteles’ Pouring Satyr. The Bacchus formerly stood outside the library in the palace of Sanssouci before coming into the possession of the Berlin Museums department of antiquities in 1842. Today its former position in Potsdam is occupied by a copy.