Bacchanale, Giulio Carpioni (venice, 1613 - Vicenza, 1678)

Giulio Carpioni (Venice, 1613 - Vicenza, 1678), Attributable to
Bacchanale

Oil on canvas
98 x 132 cm. - In frame 120 x 154 cm.

Complete details of the work (click HERE)

This high-quality, beautifully preserved painting is a refined example of the work of Giulio Carpioni (Venice, 1613 - Vicenza, 1678), one of the most talented Venetian painters of the 17th century. It depicts a typical “Bacchanal”, a favourite subject that he returned to many times.

It depicts a festival in honour of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine (or Dionysus in Greek mythology), characterised by naked or semi-naked mythological figures, such as satyrs, nymphs, maenads and cherubs, who devote themselves to idleness and the consumption of wine in a natural setting, indulging in unbridled pleasures, libations, dance, music and eroticism.

Trained by Padovanino and influenced by the classicism of the 16th-century Venetian tradition, Carpioni drew great inspiration from the early works of Titian, especially his mythological compositions and, in particular, his famous Bacchanals. It was during his trip to Rome that he had the opportunity to see and study the “Bacchanal of the Andrius”, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid, dating from between 1523 and 1526.

He was fascinated by the dynamic movement, the sensuality of the bodies and the interplay of light and shadow in this work. He therefore reworked many of the characters from Titian's painting, such as the sensual nude nymph reclining in the lower left corner.

Moving to the right, we see the amusing “puer mingens” (a figure in a work of art depicted as a prepubescent boy urinating) squirting urine at a nymph who turns away, annoyed by this mischievous gesture.

In Rome, the artist was also influenced by the realism of the Bamboccianti, as well as the classicist demands of Poussin, who devoted himself with great success to the same theme of the Bacchanalia.

The painting presented here can be compared in particular with the Bacchanal of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo (https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/fotografia/108771/), similar in size, in which the figure of the fat, drunken Silenus supported by young assistants is reproduced almost identically in the counterpart (https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/opere-arte/schede/C0050-00068/), and again with the Bacchanal in the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco (https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/opere-arte/schede/B0020-00078/?view=autori&offset=1&hi...), as well as the painting in the Civic Museums of Vicenza through the bequest of Carlo Vicentini Dal Giglio in 1834.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The work is sold complete with a pleasant gilded frame and comes with a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic card.

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