Bacchanal
1615–42
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 x 9 1/8 in. (7 x 23.2cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
Accession Number
28.91.20
Tags
Art Historical Context
Pierre Brebiette'sBacchanal*, an created between 1615 1642, captures wild exuberance of a mythological revelry. This intimate print, measuring just 2¾ x 9⅛ inches, depicts frolicsome figures including Cupid, satyrs, and rams—evoking the ecstatic rites of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Brebiette, a French artist active in the early 17 century, drew from Mannerist traditions, blending graceful forms with playful grotesquerie in a horizontal composition ideal for etching's delicate lines. Etching, Brebiette's chosen medium, allowed for fluid, expressive strokes etched into a metal plate with ac...
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...