Cleveland Museum of Art

Silenus Accompanied by a Satyr and a Faun

Christoffel Jegher

Date

1630

Medium

woodcut

Culture

Flanders

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens made several images of Bacchus and his teacher, Silenus. Silenus’s incessant overindulgence in wine presented comic possibilities, as seen here, where he walks naked in a stupor with the support of two others. Some artists, including Rubens, were attracted to Silenus for his embodiment of the intuitive and sensual parts of human nature, qualities essential to creativity. Art historians have argued that Rubens’s images of Silenus are indirect self-portraits expressing the artist’s search for creative inspiration and spiritual insight while inhabiting a highly corruptible human body.

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