''Bacchus and Ariadne'' (1520–1523)
is an
oil painting
Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...
by
Titian
Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno.
Ti ...
. It is one of a cycle of paintings on mythological subjects produced for
Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
Alfonso d'Este (21 July 1476 – 31 October 1534) was Duke of Ferrara from 1504 to 1534, during the time of the War of the League of Cambrai.
Biography
He was the son of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Eleanor of Naples and became du ...
, for the
Camerino d'Alabastro – a private room in his
palazzo
A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...
in Ferrara decorated with paintings based on classical texts. An advance payment was given to
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
, who originally held the commission for the subject of a ''Triumph of Bacchus''.
At the time of Raphael's death in 1520, only a preliminary drawing was completed. The commission was then handed to Titian. In the case of ''Bacchus and Ariadne'', the subject matter was derived from the Roman poets
Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes.
Life
...
and
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
, and perhaps other classical authors.
The painting, considered one of Titian's greatest works, is now in the
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current dire ...
. The other major paintings in the cycle are ''
The Feast of the Gods'', mostly by
Giovanni Bellini
Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 29 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, ...
, now in the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
, Washington, D.C, and Titian's ''
The Bacchanal of the Andrians'' and ''
The Worship of Venus'', both now in the
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...
, Madrid. The series was a very early treatment of subjects from classical mythology on a heroic scale in painting, rather than in small decorative pieces, and very influential on later works.
Description
Ariadne
In Greek mythology, Ariadne (; ; ) was a Cretan princess, the daughter of King Minos of Crete. There are variations of Ariadne's myth, but she is known for helping Theseus escape from the Minotaur and being abandoned by him on the island of N ...
has been left on the island of
Naxos
Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...
, deserted by her lover
Theseus
Theseus (, ; ) was a divine hero in Greek mythology, famous for slaying the Minotaur. The myths surrounding Theseus, his journeys, exploits, and friends, have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages.
Theseus is sometimes desc ...
, whose ship sails away to the far left. She is discovered on the shore by the god
Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...
, leading a procession of revellers in a chariot drawn by two
cheetah
The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large Felidae, cat and the Fastest animals, fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, wit ...
s. These were probably modelled on those in the Duke's
menagerie
A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern zoo or zoological garden.
The term was first used in 17th-century France, referring to ...
and were
tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...
s in Ovid's original text.
[P. Ovidius Naso, ''Ars Amatoria'', Book I, Perseus Catalog](_blank)
/ref> Another option is that Titian was asked by his patron Alfonso I d’Este to create cheetahs inspired by '' Imagines'' of Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; ; 170s – 240s AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He flourished during the reign of Septimius Severus ...
. Bacchus is depicted in mid-air as he leaps out of the chariot, taking her with him. In the sky above the figure of Ariadne is the star constellation Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.
The National Gallery's website describes the scene: "Bacchus, god of wine, emerges with his followers from the landscape to the right. Falling in love with Ariadne on first sight, he leaps from his chariot, drawn by two cheetahs, towards her. Ariadne had been abandoned on the Greek island of Naxos by Theseus, whose ship is shown in the distance. The picture shows her initial fear of Bacchus, but he raised her to heaven and turned her into a constellation, represented by the stars above her head."
The composition is divided diagonally into two triangles, one of blue sky, using the expensive ultramarine
Ultramarine is a deep blue pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. Its lengthy grinding and washing process makes the natural pigment quite valuable—roughly ten times more expensive than the stone it comes fr ...
pigment, and still but for the two lovers caught in movement, the other a riot of movement and predominantly green/brown in colour. The follower of Bacchus who struggles with a snake is sometimes associated with the antique sculpture of ''Laocoön and His Sons
The statue of ''Laocoön and His Sons'', also called the Laocoön Group (), has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures since it was excavated in Rome in 1506 and put on public display in the Vatican Museums, where it remains today. The st ...
'' who had been killed by snakes. This statue had recently been discovered in Rome, and Titian had a history of sketching this figure, as seen through a woodcut completed from Titian's sketch of Laocoön and his sons. But the satyr in Titian's painting is not in a mortal combat with the snakes, he is merely girding himself with them as is described in the original text by Catullus. The King Charles Spaniel
The King Charles Spaniel (also known as the English Toy Spaniel) is a small dog breed of the spaniel type. In 1903, The Kennel Club combined four separate toy spaniel breeds under this single title. The other varieties merged into this breed wer ...
that barks at the boy satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr (, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( ), and sileni (plural), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exaggerated erection. ...
is a common motif in Titian's work and was probably a court pet. The gold urn inscribed with the artist's signature (TICIANVS) may also have been familiar to the Duke as one of the antiquities in his collection.
Fern Luskin argues in “Titian's Bacchus and his two loves,” Titian represents not only Bacchus’ passion for Ariadne, but also his infatuation with a boy satyr, Ampelos, who struts at the center of the composition. Bacchus’ love for Ampelos is told by the ancient Greek poet Nonnos in his ''Dionysiaca
The ''Dionysiaca'' (, ''Dionysiaká'') is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest surviving poem from Greco-Roman antiquity at 20,426 lines, composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hex ...
'' (Books 11 to 12). Ampelos (meaning grapevine in Greek) merits such a prominent position in the painting because it was only through the boy’s death and metamorphosis into a grapevine that Bacchus was able to produce wine for the first time, thus giving life to Bacchus’ persona as the god of wine, the essence of his divinity. According to Nonnos (''Dionysiaca'', 11. 1138-790), when Ampelos died, the grief-stricken Bacchus garlanded the boy with ‘perishable anemone’ flowers. This explains why Titian initially painted anemone flowers in Ampelos’ hair, now barely visible because he later replaced them with jasmine flowers. Although anemone would have unmistakably identified the boy satyr as Ampelos, it “would have been anachronistic because, according to Nonnos (''Dionysiaca,'' 11. 236–237), Bacchus crowned Ampelos with ‘perishable anemone’ after his death, whereas in Titian’s painting the boy is shown alive.”
The analysis of pigments used by Titian in this painting has been undertaken by scientists at the National Gallery in London[Lucas, A., Plesters, J. "Titian's 'Bacchus and Ariadne. ''National Gallery Technical Bulletin'' Vol. 2, pp. 25–47]
/ref> and this analysis is illustrated at ColourLex.
Literary sources
There is continued discussion about which work or works of ancient literature Titian's painting is based on. Titian himself did not read Latin, still less Greek, but he had a number of friends who could help him with details from classical works not yet translated into Italian. Until the 1940s, Catullus' 64th poem was considered to be the inspiration, due to the fact that it includes multiple images from Catullus' poem, such as the tambourine, cymbals, and the Satyr wrapped in serpents.
In 1948, art historian Edgar Wind suggested instead that this image was based on Ovid's Fasti Book 3. Wind contended that this was the true literary source because it accounted for Bacchus leaping from the chariot, the presence of the constellation in the sky, and the fact that Ariadne is awake in this image (many depictions show Bacchus seeing Ariadne for the first time while she is asleep).
Other scholars have suggested that the Northern Crown points to other works by Ovid, either his Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...
, in which Bacchus throws the crown of Ariadne into the sky where it becomes the constellation Northern Crown, or his Ars Amatoria
The (''The Art of Love'') is an instructional elegy series in three books by the ancient Roman poet Ovid. It was written in 2 AD.
Content
Book one of was written to show a man how to find a woman. In book two, Ovid shows how to keep her. These ...
, in which Bacchus promises the entire sky to Ariadne where she then would become the Northern Crown.
At the extreme right of the ''Bacchus and Ariadne'' is a shaggy Silenus
In Greek mythology, Silenus (; , ) was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue ('' thiasos''), and sometimes considerably older, in which case he may be referred to as a Pa ...
holding a vine-clad staff. According to Luskin, he is the vision Bacchus sees of Eros after Ampelos’ death who, as recounted by Nonnos (''Dionysiaca'', XI. 351–354), appears to the wine god ‘in the horned shape of a shaggy Seilenos…’ holding a fennel staff. His staff, however, is not a thyrsus
In Ancient Greece a ''thyrsus'' () or ''thyrsos'' (; ) was a wand or staff of giant fennel ('' Ferula communis'') covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with '' taeniae'' and topped with a pine cone, artichoke, fennel, or by a ...
made from a fennel stalk. It is a reed-pole. But, it is no ordinary reed-pole. This reed-pole was formerly Calamos (meaning reed), another of Bacchus’ young companions who metamorphosed into a reed after committing suicide in the ''Dionysiaca'', 11. 369–481. The grapevine entwining the Silenus’ reed-pole is Ampelos undergoing his transformation into a grapevine before our very eyes, an event described by Nonnos in Book 12. 173–184. This miraculously formed grapevine has not yet produced any grapes, only leaves and tendrils, because the Italian name for Ampelos, Pampino, means immature grapevine and Titian is showing the very beginning of his metamorphosis into a grapevine. The bullock’s leg the shaggy Silenus grasps in his other hand is based on Catullus’ line about the Sileni in Bacchus’ retinue who “hurled the limbs of a young bullock torn in pieces.” Thus, this Silenus plays a dual role, that is, in his left hand, as Nonnos’ shaggy Silenus/Eros who supports himself on his staff, and in his right hand, as one of Catullus’ Sileni who celebrate the Bacchic mystery rites by flinging a bullock's leg.
Luskin summarizes: “In his ''Bacchus and Ariadne'', Titian seamlessly conflated the texts, or translations, of four ancient authors, adding a few motifs of his own invention, and included Bacchus' two love interests, one homosexual, the other, heterosexual, thereby creating a pictorial version of these stories that was completely unprecedented. Telescoping time, the painter represented the god's current love, Ariadne, both in the alluring present and in the future, immortalized as a constellation he Corona Borealis and his former love, Ampelos, both as boy-satyr, and as the grapevine into which he was transformed. He placed the wine god at the fulcrum of the composition, with Ariadne on the left and his past love, Ampelos, front and centre to emphasize that the god’s role as divine vintager was made possible by this young satyr.”
Titian’s depiction of the shaggy Silenus and of Ampelos both as a boy satyr and in the process of metamorphosing into a grapevine that wreathes the Silenus’ reed-pole may suggest that Nonnos’ ''Dionysiaca
The ''Dionysiaca'' (, ''Dionysiaká'') is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest surviving poem from Greco-Roman antiquity at 20,426 lines, composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hex ...
'' was also a source for the ''Bacchus and Ariadne''.
Restoration
The canvas on which ''Bacchus and Ariadne'' is painted was rolled up twice in the first century of its existence, which had consequences for the painting. From the turn of the 19th century onwards it was frequently being restored to stop paint from flaking off, with the most controversial restoration being that carried out at the National Gallery between 1967 and 1968. This greatly brightened the surface of the painting, and came as something of a shock to many viewers, used to a heavy varnish
Varnish is a clear Transparency (optics), transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not to be confused with wood stain. It usually has a yellowish shade due to the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmente ...
finish. When discoloured varnish lying directly on top of the paint surface was removed, some of the paint itself came off as well and repainting was necessary.[
This has caused some critics to note that the expanse of blue sky on the left-hand side, one of the worst-affected areas of the painting, appears flat and pallid. It has also been argued that the removal of the varnish has left the painting tonally out of balance, since Titian is likely to have added some subtle glazes to the paint surface in order to tone down some of the more jarring colours. The National Gallery maintains that this was an unavoidable loss, because the accrued layers of later varnish had turned the painting brown and sludgy and had to be removed. More recent examination has confirmed that the paint remains largely original.][
]
Other paintings
There are many other paintings of the subject in museum collections, including the following:
* Giovan Battista Pittoni (1720–1725), in the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
*Guido Reni
Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian Baroque painter, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but al ...
(Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
)
* Ferdinand Bol, Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...
* Eustache Le Sueur, Boston MFA
*Sebastiano Ricci
Sebastiano Ricci (1 August 165915 May 1734) was an Italian Baroque painter of the late Baroque period in Venetian painting. About the same age as Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Tie ...
, Chiswick House
Chiswick House is a Neo-Palladian style villa in the Chiswick district of London, England. A "glorious" example of Neo-Palladian architecture in west London, the house was designed and built by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753 ...
* Jacopo Tintoretto, ''Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne'', Doge's Palace
The Doge's Palace (''Doge'' pronounced ; ; ) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic architecture, Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace included government offices, a jail, and th ...
, Venice.
A copy of Titian's painting by Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythologic ...
is part of the collection at Alnwick Castle
Alnwick Castle () is a castle and country house in Alnwick in the English county of Northumberland. It is the seat of the Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland, 12th Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman Conquest and renovated an ...
.
References in other media
John Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...
alluded to this painting (which was brought to England in 1806) in his "Ode to a Nightingale" ("Away! away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards") and in "Lamia" ("Upon her crest she wore a wannish fire/Sprinkled with stars, like Ariadne's tiar").
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L.
Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...
reviews this work in her poem "Bacchus and Ariadne", first published in 1822, as a "Dramatic Scene", being a dialogue between Leonardi and Alvine.
The painting was the basis for the cover of the 1993 album '' God Shuffled His Feet'' by rock band Crash Test Dummies.
The Indonesian composer Ananda Sukarlan has made a musical work for flute and piano, "Rescuing Ariadne" after being inspired by Titian's painting in the National Gallery of London.
In her novel ''Misalliance'', Anita Brookner
Anita Brookner (16 July 1928 – 10 March 2016) was an English novelist and art historian. She was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1968 and was the first woman to hold this visiting professorship. She ...
alludes to Titian's painting and depicts the encounter between Ariadne and Bacchus as an "ecstatic moment of recognition .. so immediate that Bacchus' foot has not had time to touch the ground as he leaps from his chariot, so shocking that Ariadne flings up a hand protest."
See also
* List of works by Titian
Notes
References
*
*
*
Further reading
* Bomford, David (1997). ''Conservation of Paintings''. London: National Gallery Company.
* Jaffé, David; et al. (2003). ''Titian''. London: National Gallery Company.
* Gould, C.H.M. (1969). ''The studio of Alfonso d’Este and Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne: a re-examination of the chronology of the Bacchanals and of the evolution of one of them''. London: National Gallery Company.
External links
National Gallery page
High definition image on Google art
* ttp://www.mappingtitian.org/paintings/bacchus-and-ariadne Mapping Titian, ''Bacchus and Ariadne'', Provenance of the painting on a map
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacchus and Ariadne
1523 paintings
Paintings by Titian in the National Gallery, London
Paintings of Bacchus
Paintings commissioned for the camerini d'alabastro
Paintings of Greek myths
Dogs in paintings by Titian
Cats in art
Water in art
Paintings based on works by Ovid
Mythological paintings by Titian
Ariadne
Oil on canvas paintings