Drunken Bacchus

Carlo Ginori's interest in Florentine late Baroque sculptural production is confirmed by the collection of models acquired for the Manifattura di Doccia in the 18^th century and now part of the Museo Ginori collection. Some of these signed models by master sculptors are particularly valuable because to this day they constitute the only evidence of the compositions of their invention. This is the case of the extraordinary terracotta group depicting the Drunken Bacchus modelled by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi in 1695 and donated by him to Marquis Clemente di Giulio Vitelli. It was inherited by the latter's nephew and was sold by him to Carlo Ginori in 1752. 

As in the case of the Sacrifice of Isaac modelled in terracotta by Giuseppe Piamontini (with intervention from his workshop), for the Drunken Bacchus there are also specimens made to be produced in bronze which were purchased by Marquis Carlo Ginori for “factory use,” and intended to be produced in porcelain, wholly or in part. 

In the case of this specimen, only the lion on the left of the composition appears to have been sectioned at the height of the lower limbs, a clear sign of its use by the factory for the creation of a model that, although revised in the paw pose,  is likely identifiable with the one used for the creation of the lion cubs supporting the medals at the top of the monumental Temple of the Glories of Tuscany. Donated in 1756 to the Etruscan Academy in Cortona by Ginori following his appointment as lucumone of the same, the Tempietto arrived there post mortem in 1758, through his son Lorenzo.