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A Bacchanal

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Followers of Bacchus – the Roman god of wine and fertility – feast, drink and make love in the countryside. The painting resembles the great bacchanal scenes that were commissioned from the leading painters of Venice by Alfonso I d‘Este, Duke of Ferrara, for the Camerino d’Alabastro (Alabaster Room) in his palace, in particular Bellini’s Feast of the Gods (National Gallery of Art, Washington) and Titian’s Bacchanal of the Andrians (Prado, Madrid). However, the absence of the pigment ultramarine blue, which features consistently in the paintings for the Camerino, makes it highly unlikely that this painting could have hung among them, as has sometimes been suggested. The blue pigment in the sky here is azurite. It is not known who painted this picture.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

A Bacchanal

Date

probably about 1515–20

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 140.9 x W 168.2 cm;
H 140.9 x W 168.2 cm

Accession number

NG5279

Acquisition method

Bequeathed by Sir Lionel Faudel-Phillips, 1941

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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