Ariadne (Sculpture)
From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia
Unknown copyist after an ancient work
c. 1800-1809
Marble
68.5 x 95.3 x 34.3 (27 x 37 ½ x 13 ½ inches)
James Bowdoin III, who was appointed American minister to Spain by President Thomas Jefferson in 1804, came across this sculpture while visiting Paris and wrote to Jefferson, describing its beauty and his desire for him to have it.[1] Jefferson accepted the offer and the sculpture arrived at Monticello in 1805. However, for ten years or so, Jefferson thought, as Bowdoin did, that the female figure was Cleopatra. Jefferson initially described the reclining sculpture as “A Cleopatra in marble” in his Catalogue of Paintings. It wasn’t until he turned to the appropriate page and illustration in his own copy of Augustine Legrand’s Galeries des Antiques (1803), that he changed his mind and revised his description in the Catalogue, translating Legrand’s comments into English.
After Jefferson’s death, Ariadne was shipped to Boston for sale there, but Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge decided to hold on to it. She wrote her mother, "I kept back the Ariadne, … because I thought it a pity to sacrifice [it] as the others were sacrificed."
Currently rests on floor of Monticello Entrance Hall.
Greek Mythology history: Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete and his wife, Pasiphae. Pasiphae also gave birth to the Minotaur, a monster, half-bull and half-man. Athens paid tribute to Crete by periodically sending seven young men and seven young women to be devoured by the Minotaur. Theseus of Athens volunteered as one of the seven and slew the Minotaur, thus freeing Athens of the tribute. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and helped him find his way out of the labyrinth after he slew the Minotaur. She fled with Theseus but he deserted her on the island of Naxos. Dionysus later found Ariadne there and married her.
Provenance: Thomas Jefferson; by descent to Ellen and Joseph Coolidge; by descent to T. Jefferson Coolidge Jr.; by loan to Thomas Jefferson Foundation since 1928.
Footnote
- ↑ The article is based on Stein, Worlds, 238.
