Et bacchusbarn med en vinkande og et glas, halvt liggende med et bind af Saxo i hånden 1871

Editor: So, here we have C.F. Holbech’s 1871 marble sculpture, “Et bacchusbarn med en vinkande og et glas, halvt liggende med et bind af Saxo i h\u00e5nden”, which roughly translates to “A Bacchus child with a waving and a glass, half lying with a volume of Saxo in his hand." I'm really struck by how… mischievous he looks, this little god of wine. What's your take? Curator: Oh, he’s a rascal alright, frozen in creamy marble. And with Saxo at his fingertips too! Bacchus, or Dionysus to the Greeks, embodies ecstasy and liberation but here, intertwined with Saxo Grammaticus, that twelfth-century Danish historian… it's a heady brew, isn’t it? Makes you wonder, what did Holbech imagine our little drunkard reading? Battles, sagas, the making of a kingdom? Editor: That is a curious combination, I didn't make that connection. It feels very specific to this particular moment, almost like a visual pun I’m not quite getting. The artist is really putting some unlikely ingredients in the mixer! Curator: Precisely! Consider the Biedermeier period – this cozy domesticity running parallel with political frustration. Is our Bacchus then a symbol of escapism? A retreat into sensual pleasures and old sagas? I am tempted to ask, are we not all children, playfully intoxicated, perhaps thumbing through history to avoid the here and now? Editor: Wow, so it is not just a classical reference but something really anchored in its time. It makes me rethink how 'universal' these mythical figures really are... Curator: Art, you see, always whispers secrets of its own era, even as it echoes the past. The little marble imp seems far less innocent now, doesn’t he? Editor: Absolutely. I’ll never look at a tipsy Bacchus the same way again.