Silenus gathering Grapes

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Using an animal skin, two laughing satyrs with pointed ears and short tails lift a plump, drunken man to pick the grapes that dangle above him. To the right a young satyr clambers up a vine and reaches out for another bunch. The man is Silenus, teacher and companion of Bacchus, the classical god of wine.

This irregularly shaped panel was part of a musical instrument, probably a kind of harpsichord. Other panels in our collection – Young Satyr gathering Grapes and Marsyas and Olympus – perhaps come from the same instrument, or from a pair of instruments. They were possibly commissioned by the scholar and collector Fulvio Orsini, librarian and curator to the Farnese family, Annibale Carracci’s powerful Roman patrons.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Silenus gathering Grapes

Date

1597-1600

Medium

Oil and egg on wood

Measurements

H 54.5 x W 88.5 cm

Accession number

NG93.1

Acquisition method

Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831

Work type

Painting

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