«Per la delettatione che delle memorie antiche generosamente suol prendere»: le antichità di Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, il Bacco D’Aspra-Guisa ed un’ipotesi sul Dioniso di Versailles

The contribution addresses the early activity of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517–1586), Minister to Emperor Charles V of Habsburg, and Charles of Guise (1524-1574), Cardinal of Lorraine, as collectors. Unpublished letters from Spanish and Italian archives cast new light on Granvelle’s antiquarian interests and his acquisitions in the fields of classical sculpture, plaster casts, ancient coins, cameos, drawings and prints in the period spanning 1541 to 1561. Such art objects were sent as gifts to Granvelle from Rome, Milan and Fontainebleau. Among them was Primaticcio’s free-hand copy of a small model, possibly by Leonardo da Vinci, for an equestrian monument. The paper also reconstructs the history of an ancient Bacchus «intero con mano et piede» proceeding from the Roman estate of Francesco d’Aspra and donated to Charles of Guise by Pope Julius III in 1550. This marble statue can be identified with the so-called Dionysus of Versailles (Paris, Musée du Louvre), formerly exhibited in the Castle of Meudon.