Cleveland Museum of Art
Bacchanal
Pietro da CortonaLinkedCulture matchlcp-3510a6c192f7
- Date
- mid-1600s
- Medium
- pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over black chalk, heightened with white gouache; incised, framing lines in brown ink over traces of black chalk
- Culture
- Italy, 17th century
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 132136
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Here, a bacchanalia is in full swing with its required cast of characters: Bacchus, Roman god of wine, at right; Silenus, atop the wine barrel, always ready for another glass; and numerous bacchants consisting of maenads, satyrs, musicians, children, and a goat, all within an Italian landscape. This drawing may have been a design for a fresco or painting. Depictions of bacchanalia were often meant for dining spaces, where the elite of society could playfully mirror the revelries portrayed in their own enjoyment of food and wine. Goats were commonly associated with sinful behavior, making them a common element in Bacchic scenes.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- The Norweb Collection
- Provenance
- ?–1954: Emery May Holden Norweb (Mrs. R. Henry Norweb) [1895–1984], Cleveland, OH, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH | December 4, 1954–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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