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Bacchanale

Creator

Italian Artist · 1667–1749

Alessandro Magnasco was born in Genoa to a painter father who died when he was three. He traveled to Milan in his teens and trained there with an obscure Venetian painter. In 1703 he was employed by the grand duke of Florence, where he remained for six years before returning to Milan. Early upon his return, Magnasco supplied figures for other painters' landscapes to make money. Subsequently, he be

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Date: about 1720–1730
Medium: Oil on canvas
Culture: Italian
Department: Paintings
Institution: Getty Museum

Nymphs and satyrs participate in an ancient pagan feast celebrating Bacchus, the god of wine. Twisting, dancing, singing, and playing musical instruments, the small figures engage in unrestrained revelry, somewhat at odds with the dignified background of classical ruins. Alessandro Magnasco use a limited color palette for this painting, adding bright blue accents to represent swirling drapery. He created figures using quick, intuitive strokes of paint, producing a composition that appears full of movement. Magnasco painted this work, along with its pendant (also in the Getty’s collection), *[The Triumph of Venus](http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/650/)*, in Milan early in his career. His collaborator, Clemente Spera (c. 1661–1742), likely painted the architectural elements, which would explain the stark contrast between the linear, refined brushwork of the ruins and the more sketchy quality of Magnasco’s figures.

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