Drunken Satyr Conservation

The Drunken Satyr is one of the most important sculptures to have been recovered from the 18th-century excavations of the Villa dei Papiri, a private luxurious home on the Bay of Naples. Home to a large sculptural program of bronzes and marble statues, the villa was entirely buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, remaining so for over 1,500 years.

Bronze statues were common in antiquity. However, they were often melted down and reused for their valuable material, making their archeological discovery very rare. After their recovery, the Villa dei Papiri sculptures became widely known around Europe and their notoriety demanded restoration and preparation for display. As such, sculptures like the Drunken Satyr became keystones in the nascent field of art history and unrivaled testaments to the history of restoration practices in the 18th-century.

According to the excavation records (1750–1764) and illustrations produced by the Swiss military engineer Karl Jacob Weber, the Drunken Satyr was displayed at one of the ends of the long pool in the villa’s rectangular peristyle. The statue was recovered on July 14th, 1754. Archival sources from the Royal Bourbon Museum (now the National Archaeological Museum of Naples) provide a unique account of its 18th-century restorations by restorer Tommaso Valenziani. A modern copy of the Drunken Satyr resides at the end of the long pool of the outer peristyle today at the Getty Villa.

• October 2018: Arrival

• November 2018: Study and analysis begins

• February 2019: Study and analysis

• February 2019: Disassembly of historic drapery

• February 2019: Making lifting mechanisms for the removal of the Satyr

• February 2019: Separation and lifting of the ancient figure

• April 2019: Cleaning and stabilization of the stone support

• May 2019: Reassembly

• June 2019: Preparing for installation in the galleries

• November 2019: Packing and shipping

Archival records were an aid in understanding portions of the Drunken Satyr’s history and basic timeline of interventions. The condition of the object at the time of recovery, the techniques of ancient manufacture, and the number and nature of restoration campaigns would need to be identified through observation and other non-destructive analytical techniques. See Methodology subpage for complete information.

• Visual examination using infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light
• Inspection under varying magnifications and microscopes
• Radiography to ascertain the methods of manufacture (both ancient and historic) and the nature of joining between ancient-to-ancient portions, ancient-to-restoration sections and restoration-to-restoration
• Radiography to reveal structural vulnerability and previous interventions
• Endoscopy to confirm and further define the findings of radiography
• Hand-held X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for elemental mapping of the metal surfaces, helping to further refine and confirm the findings from visual examination in distinguishing ancient from historic