VOS, Cornelis de
(b. 1584/85, Hulst, d. 1651, Antwerpen)

The Triumph of Bacchus

1636-38
Oil on canvas, 180 x 295 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

In the period 1636-1638 Rubens's workshop received a large commission to make mythological decorations for the hunting pavilion Torre de la Parada of the Spanish king Philip IV near Madrid. For this project de Vos, together with a number of painters from Rubens's circle, painted decorations after oil sketches by Rubens.

This painting is related to Rubens's commission for the Torre de la Parada. Cornelis de Vos who made four canvases for the series after sketches by Rubens: Triumph of Bacchus, Apollo chasing Daphne, Apollo and the snake Python, and Birth of Venus. The style of Cornelis de Vos differs in the type of brushstroke, less energetic and loose than that of Rubens, which weakens the compositions with respect to the sketches. In spite of this, Cornelis de Vos follows Rubens's sketches very faithfully, preserved in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.

Here Bacchus is represented as a fat man on a car surrounded by silenos and satyrs in a cortege where everyone enjoys the party and the wine.