The Triumph of Bacchus, or the Drunkards
Oil Painting
2nd half 19th century (painted)
2nd half 19th century (painted)
| Artist/Maker |
Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) was born in Seville where he received his first artistic training in the studio of Francisco de Herrera the elder (ca.1576-1656) and subsequently with Francisco Pacheco (1564-ca. 1644). He produced bodegones (genre scenes), religious paintings and portraits. He became from 1623 court painter of King Philip IV of Spain for whom he painted many state portraits. Although he had no immediate followers, his son-in-law, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (1613-1667), can be considered as his disciple.
This painting is a copy after Velazquez' The Triumph of Bacchus, or the Drunkards, dated 1628-1629 and currently preserved in the Prado, Madrid. It depicts a scene of drunkards, one of them being crowned by Bacchus, the god of Wine, who appears here accompanied by satyrs. It combines thus a mythological subject with a genre scene, which precise meaning is still subject to debate. The copy was probably made in the late 19th century.
This painting is a copy after Velazquez' The Triumph of Bacchus, or the Drunkards, dated 1628-1629 and currently preserved in the Prado, Madrid. It depicts a scene of drunkards, one of them being crowned by Bacchus, the god of Wine, who appears here accompanied by satyrs. It combines thus a mythological subject with a genre scene, which precise meaning is still subject to debate. The copy was probably made in the late 19th century.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Triumph of Bacchus, or the Drunkards |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Oil painting, 'The Triumph of Bacchus, or the Drunkards' copy by José Robles Martinez after Velazquez, late 19th century |
| Physical description | In a landscape, Bacchus seated on a barrel is crowning a man kneeling in the foreground while two satyrs sit beside him on the left and laughing drunkards are on the right. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Object history | Purchased, 1866 Historical significance: This painting is a much reduced copy, perhaps of 19th century date, after Velazquez' The Triumph of Bacchus, or the Drunkards (165 x 225 cm), in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (P01170), which was executed between 1628 and 1629. It depicts the god of Wine, Bacchus, seated on a barrel, crowned with grape leaves and accompanied by satyrs, crowning a young soldier surrounded by a group of peasants drinking. It has been variously suggested that it represents a Flemish fête; a scene from the picaresque novel Vida y hechos de Estebanillo González; or a bodegón (the Spanish term for a genre painting), illustrating the capacity of wine to console. The original work demonstrates an use of colour which Velazquez learned from the work of Rubens and the sixteenth-century Venetians, as well as a knowledge of Caravaggio. |
| Historical context | Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) was born in Seville, where he received his first artistic training in the studio of Francisco de Herrera the elder (ca.1576-1656), and subsequently with Francisco Pacheco (1564-ca. 1644). He produced genre scenes, religious, mythological and historical paintings and portraits. In 1623 he became court painter to King Philip IV of Spain, for whom he painted many works. He had no immediate followers, but his son-in-law, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (1613-1667), can be considered his disciple. Paintings of everyday life were popular from the 17th century in Spain, where Francisco Pacheco in his Arte de la pintura (1649) called the naturalistic genre scenes of Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) 'bodegones', from the name of a rough public eating-place ('bodegon' in Spanish means 'still-life'). |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) was born in Seville where he received his first artistic training in the studio of Francisco de Herrera the elder (ca.1576-1656) and subsequently with Francisco Pacheco (1564-ca. 1644). He produced bodegones (genre scenes), religious paintings and portraits. He became from 1623 court painter of King Philip IV of Spain for whom he painted many state portraits. Although he had no immediate followers, his son-in-law, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (1613-1667), can be considered as his disciple. This painting is a copy after Velazquez' The Triumph of Bacchus, or the Drunkards, dated 1628-1629 and currently preserved in the Prado, Madrid. It depicts a scene of drunkards, one of them being crowned by Bacchus, the god of Wine, who appears here accompanied by satyrs. It combines thus a mythological subject with a genre scene, which precise meaning is still subject to debate. The copy was probably made in the late 19th century. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 336-1866 |
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| Record created | February 12, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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