MOEYAERT, Claes Cornelisz.
(b. 1591, Durgerdam, d. 1655, Amsterdam)

Triumph of Bacchus

1624
Oil on panel, 53 x 83 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Claes Moeyaert belonged to the small group categorized as Pre-Rembrandtists. The group includes Pieter Lastman (c. 1583-1633), Jan Pynas (1581/2-1631) and his younger brother Jacob (1592/95-after 1656), their brother-in-law Jan Tengnagel (1584-1635), Lastman's brother-in-law François Venant (1590/91-1636), and Moeyaert.

Moeyaert early works are a 'potpourri' of Lastman, Jacob Pynas, and Bril. He found his speciality in the mid-1620s: small pictures of bacchanals characterized by a silver-gray tonality. The animals in his lusty processions usually have as much character as the revellers who accompany them.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes):
Camille Saint-Saëns: Samson et Delila, Act III, Scene 2, Bacchanal