In motif and style, this drawing is close to its ancient models. The motif is also known from Winckelmann’s Monumenti Antichi Inediti (1767), while the sculptor Johannes Wiedewelt, who was one of Winckelmann’s circle in Rome and subsequently Thorvaldsen’s teacher in the Academy in Copenhagen, was also familiar with it. Thorvaldsen returned to the central group representing Bacchus and the satyr in many later drawings, where he was much freer in his treatment of his models.
