Art Institute of Chicago

Bacchanal with a Wine Vat

Workshop of Andrea Mantegna

Date

c. 1470

Medium

Engraving on cream laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Andrea Mantegna was an artist with a deep interest in antiquity, and much of his work resembled Greco-Roman sculpture, which he translated into widely circulating and frequently copied engravings. This is the left half of a pair of prints; the adjoining print Bacchanal with Silenos (1956.1010) is also in the Art Institute’s collection. Mantegna’s frieze-shaped bacchanalian subjects portray the god of wine and his drunken revelers. Dionysos may be the standing youth on the left, who is being crowned with a wreath of grape leaves. His noble bearing and contrapposto stance link him particularly to ancient sculptures.

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