Feste de Bacchus (Festival of Bacchus from, Bacchannales or the Quatre Festes)
c.1693-1722
Medium
Etching on paper
Dimensions
Image: 17.3 × 35.7 cm (6 13/16 × 14 1/16 in.); Plate: 22 × 37.2 cm (8 11/16 × 14 11/16 in.); Sheet: 30.5 × 46 cm (12 1/16 × 18 1/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
31681
Art Historical Context
Claude Gillot's *Feste de Bacchus created around 1693–1722, captures the exuberant spirit of a Bacchanalian festival honoring the Roman god of wine, revelry, and ecstasy. Part of the series *Bacchannales* or *the Quatre Festes*, etching depicts a lively procession of mythological figures dancing and celebrating amid lush landscapes, evoking the opulent fêtes of France's late Baroque era under Louis XIV. Gillot, a pioneering French artist and etcher (1673–1722), bridged the grandeur of classical mythology with the playful elegance that would inspire the Rococo style and his pupil Antoine Wattea...
About the Artist
Claude Gillot · 1673–1722
Artist known for his elegant designs done in the Rococo manner of Audran; also for his predilection for scenes from the 'comedia dell'arte.' Few paintings survive; his work is known mainly through drawings and etchings. Comment on works: Genre; History