Description
Claude Gillot’s four-etching series of riotous woodland bacchanals celebrates Bacchus, Pan, fauns, and the nymph Diana (see 1969.279–81). As stylistic precursors to the French Rococo with a deep interest in theater, Gillot’s prints are satirical and revolve around ancient sculpture. The young Bacchus appears here as the devotional focal point, his head atop a herm (a stone pillar topped with a carved head or bust, sometimes with a phallus) festooned with flowers and fruit. The bas-relief hanging above shows the god discovering his future wife, Ariadne, while the text below teasingly suggests that enough wine will solve all romantic problems.
Feste de Bacchus (Festival of Bacchus from, Bacchannales or the Quatre Festes)
c.1693-1722
Accession Number
31681
Medium
Etching on paper
Dimensions
Image: 17.3 × 35.7 cm (6 13/16 × 14 1/16 in.); Plate: 22 × 37.2 cm (8 11/16 × 14 11/16 in.); Sheet: 30.5 × 46 cm (12 1/16 × 18 1/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Credit Line
Potter Palmer Collection Fund
Related Artworks
Apollo, from Livre de Portieres
Claude Gillot
Le Mariage (The Mariage from, the Vie des Satyres)
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Feste de Faune (The feast of the faun from, Bacchannales or the Quatres Festes)
Claude Gillot
Feste du dieu Pan (Festival of the god Pan from, Bacchanales or the Quatre Festes)
Claude Gillot