Silenus at the Wine Vat
1628
Medium
Etching in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 27.5 × 35.2 cm (10 7/8 × 13 7/8 in.); Sheet: 28.2 × 35.6 cm (11 1/8 × 14 1/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
109309
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The Spanish Baroque artist Ribera may have known several of the other bacchanal prints on view nearby, including those by Andrea Mantegna (1956.1010 and .1011); this earthy depiction of Dionysos’s fleshy, frequently inebriated follower closely resembles the scene within the grape-arbored roundel of Annibale Carracci’s Tazza Farnese (1989.172). Pan, with his pipes set aside, crowns Silenos with a wreath of grapevines, tendrils of which also cover his pubic area. Children have passed out from the ...
About the Artist
Jusepe de Ribera · 1590–1652
Ribera is considered one of the most important figures in European painting in the 17th century and the Counter-Reformation. He was Spanish, but spent nearly his entire career in Italy. He was initially influenced by followers of Caravaggio who were active in Rome; he later incorporated stylistic innovations of Venice and Flanders in his own highly personal compositions.