Bacchus (Caravaggio)

Bacchus
Italian: Bacco

Artist	Caravaggio
Year	c.1595
Type	oil on canvas
Dimensions	95 cm × 85 cm (37 in × 33 in)
Location	Uffizi, Florence

Bacchus (c. 1595) is a painting by Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610). It is held in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

The painting shows a youthful Bacchus reclining in classical fashion with grapes and vine leaves in his hair, fingering the drawstring of his loosely draped robe. On a stone table in front of him is a bowl of fruit and a large carafe of red wine; with his left hand he holds out to the viewer a shallow goblet of the same wine, apparently inviting the viewer to join him.

Bacchus was painted shortly after Caravaggio joined the household of his first important patron, Cardinal Del Monte, and reflects the humanist interests of the Cardinal's educated circle. It was not in the cardinal's collection at his death, and may have been a gift to the Grand Duke in Florence. It was unknown until 1913.^[1] When it was found in a storeroom of the Uffizi Galleries, it had never been catalogued or framed.^[2]

Bacchus' offering of the wine with his left hand, despite the obvious effort this is causing the model, has led to speculation that Caravaggio used a mirror to assist himself while working from life, doing away with the need for drawing. In other words, what appears to us as the boy's left hand was actually his right. This would accord with the comment by Caravaggio's early biographer, the artist Giovanni Baglione, that Caravaggio did some early paintings using a mirror. English artist David Hockney made Caravaggio's working methods a central feature of his thesis (known as the Hockney-Falco thesis) that Renaissance and later artists used some form of camera lucida. The model for Bacchus might have been Caravaggio's friend Mario Minniti, whom he had used before in The Musicians.^[3]

References

↑ Hibbard, Howard (1985). Caravaggio. Oxford: Westview Press. p. 39. ISBN 9780064301282.
↑ Graham-Dixon, Andrew (2011). Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 9780241954645.
↑ Langdon, Helen (2000). Caravaggio: A Life. Westview Press. ISBN 9780813337944.

External links

Works by Caravaggio

1593–1594	Boy Peeling Fruit (c. 1592) Young Sick Bacchus (c. 1593) Boy with a Basket of Fruit The Fortune Teller (Buona ventura) (c. 1594) Cardsharps (I bari) (c. 1594)

1595–1599 Del Monte paintings	The Musicians (c. 1595) Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (c. 1595) Boy Bitten by a Lizard (c. 1596) The Lute Player (c. 1596) Bacchus (c. 1596) Penitent Magdalene (c. 1597) Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1597) Medusa (c. 1597) Portrait of a Courtesan (Fillide Melandroni) (c. 1597) Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (c. 1597) Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1598) The Sacrifice of Isaac (Princeton version) (c. 1598) John the Baptist (c. 1598) Martha and Mary Magdalene (c. 1598) Portrait of Maffeo Barberini (1598) Basket of Fruit (c. 1599) Judith Beheading Holofernes (c. 1599) David and Goliath (c. 1599) Narcissus (c. 1599)

1600–1606 Most famous painter in Rome	The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599–1600) The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1599–1600) The Conversion of Saint Paul (1600) The Crucifixion of Saint Peter (1601) The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus (1601) Supper at Emmaus (London) (1601) The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew Amor Victorious (1602) Saint Matthew and the Angel (1602) The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602) The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (c. 1602) The Taking of Christ (1602) The Entombment of Christ (c. 1603) Madonna of Loreto (Madonna dei Pellegrini, Pilgrims' Madonna) (c. 1604) The Crowning with Thorns (Prato) (1604) The Death of the Virgin (1604) Saint Francis in Meditation (c. 1603) Christ on the Mount of Olives (1605) Ecce Homo (c. 1605) Saint Jerome in Meditation (c. 1605) Saint Jerome Writing (Borghese) (c. 1605) Portrait of Pope Paul V (1605) Still Life with Fruit (1605) Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Madonna de Palafrenieri, Grooms' Madonna) (1606)

1606–1608 Naples and Malta	Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy (1606) Saint Francis in Prayer (Cremona) (1606) Supper at Emmaus (Milan) (1606) The Seven Works of Mercy (1606) The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew (1607) David with the Head of Goliath (Vienna) (1607) Madonna of the Rosary (1607) The Crowning with Thorns (Vienna) (1607) The Flagellation of Christ (c. 1607) Christ at the Column (c. 1607) Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (London) (c. 1607) Saint Jerome Writing (Valletta) (1607) Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page (1607–1608) Portrait of Fra Antionio Martelli (1608) The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608) Sleeping Cupid (1608)

1608–1610 Sicily and Naples	The Annunciation (1608) Burial of St. Lucy (1608) The Raising of Lazarus (1609) Adoration of the Shepherds (1609) Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (1609) Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid) (1609) Denial of Saint Peter (1610) The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (1610) David with the Head of Goliath (1610)

Paintings attributed to Caravaggio

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