CARPIONI, Giulio
(b. 1613, Venezia, d. 1678, Venezia)

Bacchanal

1660-65
Oil on canvas, 81 x 100 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

This unfinished painting represents a bacchanal, a celebration in honour of Bacchus, god of wine and of mystic delirium. Such celebrations had a licentious and orgiastic character. In the painting we see groups of fauns and nymphs, some dancing, others reclining, within a setting of classical ruins and an idealized landscape.