The Triumph of Silenus
Gerard van Obstal
c. 1660
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
36.8 × 53.3 cm (14 1/2 × 21 in.)
Classification
relief
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
146877
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Born and trained in Antwerp at the height of Peter Paul Rubens’s influence, Gerard van Opstal settled in Paris, where he contributed to the decoration of important private residences and royal projects like the Louvre. Adapting Rubens’s heroic figures and penchant for mythological themes to a smaller scale for private collectors, he excelled at carving delicate, playful reliefs showing the followers of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, in marble and in ivory. Here, Silenus, the portly and permanen...