Sleeping Silenus

Relief

According to Bellori, the Silenus relief is 'an invention according to the poetry of Virgil.' Virgil's fourth eclogue describes how two boys, Chromis and Mnasylos, find Silenus lying asleep in a cave, 'all swollen with the wine of yesterday.' His garlands have fallen from his head, and his heavy wine-jar hangs from a worn handle. The boys seize him and bind him with his own wreaths.

Then the fairest of the Naiads, Ægle, comes near, encouraging the coward boys, and as Silenus opens his eyes, she stains his brows and temples red with the juice of mulberries. In the relief, Silenus is leaning against a vitis, sleeping off his intoxication. Some putti are tying him up with shoots, while a nymph, Aegle, is smearing his face with mulberries. To the right, there are satyrs prodding Silenus' donkey, opening its mouth to make it stand up.

The version housed at the Rubenshuis was cast in bronze, with an expensive background in lapis lazuli. The Antwerp relief might come from the collection of Philip IV of Spain, where it might have arrived as a gift from Francesco Barberini, perhaps together with Duquesnoy's Bacchanal of Putti, which according to Bellori was indeed sent as a gift to the king by Barberini.