The Bacchant

Adriaen de Vries (1556-1626) is considered the most important Dutch sculptor of all time. The last years of his life were among the most productive and creative of his career. The impressive grand finale of his oeuvre stretched from 1620 to 1626, when he died in Prague where he was the court sculptor of the Habsburg emperors. It is a series of masterful bronzes in which De Vries’s unique, loose modeling style and his dynamic composing system become fully manifest. The apex of this group of late sculptures is the recently discovered Bacchant from 1626. This magnificent sculpture was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 2014 and is the most expensive ancient sculpture ever to change hands at auction. The finale of De Vries’s career took place during a tumultuous period in the history of Prague and its imperial court, which was characterized by revolt, exchanges of power, war and a turbulent economy. On the basis of new research, this publication describes that context and addresses the question of who the commissioners of his final works were. The leading part is of course played by the Rijksmuseum’s Bacchant, probably the last bronze De Vries ever completed