The aspiring young artist Lucas Faydherbe (1617-1697) worked in Rubens’s studio in the late 1630s. There he probably concentrated on making ivory sculptures after designs by the master. It is quite possible that the vividly modelled relief depicting the Drunken Silenus is also connected with Faydherbe’s ivory work after compositions by Rubens.
The Bust of a Bacchante presumably also originated in Rubens’s orbit or was inspired by him. This dissolute maenad might originally have formed a pair, together with a terracotta bust of Bacchus, now in the Museum Hof van Busleyden in Mechelen.
Specifications
- Lucas Faydherbe (1617-1697)
- Bust of a Bacchante and Drunken Silenus
- Terracotta
- Purchased with the generous support of the Friends of the Rubens House Fund