Bacchanal
1615–42
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 1/4 x 10 1/4 in. (8.2 x 26cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
Accession Number
28.91.17
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the exuberant world of *Bacchanal*, an etching by French artist Pierre Brebiette created between 1615 and 1642. This intimate print, measuring just 3¼ × 10¼ inches (8.2 × 26 cm), a whirlwind of revelry on a slender sheet, showcasing Brebiette's skill in the medium of etching—a technique where acid etches intricate lines into a metal plate richly detailed, reproducible images. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it entered the collection via the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund 1928. The scene bursts with life: men and women, including female nudes, en...
About the Artist
Pierre Brebiette · 1598–1642
Pierre Brébiette (c. 1598–c. 1642) was a French painter and etcher whose elegant, sensuous treatment of classical mythology and allegory earned him a significant reputation in early seventeenth-century Paris. Born in Mantes-sur-Seine, Brébiette traveled to Italy as a young man and lived and worked in Rome from around 1617 to approximately 1625, absorbing the influences of ancient sculpture, Renais...