DionysosAriadneANCIENT

DionysosAriadneANCIENT_Cluny

A classical white marble statue of a goddess-like woman, holding a staff and a cymbal, surrounded by putti and satyrs

The Cluny Museum materials identify this merely as "Ariadne with members of her procession." And the label leads toward Ariadne, the bride of Dionysus. If the work depicts the Byzantine empress, Ariadne of Constantinople, still she is shown with certain trappings of the mythological Ariadne: the satyr behind her left hip, the crowning by cherubim, thyrsus in her right hand and tambourine in left (as a maenad). The historical Ariadne of Constantinople was married to the emperors Zeno in 466 and then Anastasius in 475. She died 515 at Constantinople.

MJ: I would look at: Musée national du Moyen Age, Thermes de Cluny: guide to the collections in the HBLL or Goldschmidt's book on Byzantine ivories or possibly the book on late antique ivories: Spätantike und byzantinische Elfenbeinbildwerke im Diskurs, in our library, would probably have good bibliographic references.